Systems and methods are disclosed that generally pertain to provisioning an optical network unit (ONU) by an optical line terminal (OLT) of a passive optical network (PON). An exemplary provisioning system includes a wireless reader incorporated into the ONU and a transponder unit attached to a fiber optic cable coupled to the ONU. The transponder unit includes a storage element in which is stored provisioning information, such a registration ID associated with the ONU. The wireless reader automatically obtains the provisioning information from the transponder when the fiber optic cable is coupled to the ONU and transmits the provisioning information to the OLT via the fiber optic cable as a part of a discovery procedure. The transmission of the provisioning information in this manner eliminates the need for a service technician to visit a customer premise and manually provide the provisioning information via a POTS port of the ONU.
