Spanish FTTH growth continues
According to a new report from regulator CNMC (Comisión Nacional de los Mercados y la Competencia) says the number of FTTH lines reached 1,933 million in the first quarter of 2015, an increase of over 160% from the year before. In 2013, Spain had a mere 288,000 FTTH connections.
Last year, Telefonica, which operates Movistar, Spain’s main fixed line broadband supplier, stated it might expand to 18 million potential FTTH coverage locations by 2016. CEO Luis Gilperez Miguel has stated that Telefonica will extend its FTTH network to all municipalities with a population of over 1,000 over the next five years. The entire copper network will be dismantled and the quality of connections in rural areas improved. Movistar has announced they will be raising entry-level speed 6Mb/s to 10Mb/s from and launching a 100 Mb/s service.
FTTH in Asia-Pacific reaches 100 million milestone
Analyst Ovum's latest statistics show that 100 million people in the Asia-Pacific region are subscribing to FTTH services. "Asia-Pacific is leading the world in FTTH subscribers and this is a major milestone which represents a tremendous financial investment and a strong understanding of the future of networking infrastructure," said Julie Kunstler, Principal Analyst at Ovum.
"This region also reflects a wide range of deployment models - from strong government goals to innovative wholesale-retail models to crossing the digital divide with support for e-health and e-education in rural regions."
Energy giant Enel enters Italian broadband market
Enel, Italy’s largest power utility, has announced it will be using existing infrastructure to bring fibre-optic cables to millions of Italian homes. This unique approach may have significant consequences for fibre markets and operators everywhere. The Rome-based, state-owned utility have claimed that the rollout cost could amount to €3 billion, just one-fifth of the government’s current official estimates.
Over the next four years, Enel plans to deploy smart meters to 33 million households and connect these using new fibre-optic cables in existing infrastructure such as cabinets and transmission towers. Enel is not planning to become a telecoms operator in its own right, but will charge annual maintenance fees for the use of its facilities.
FTTH now reaching 30% of Dutch households
In 2014, the Dutch FTTH market grew by 370,000 connections to just over 2.3 million. According to Telecompaper’s annual FTTH report for 2015, the number of FTTH homes passed hit 2,329,000 on the last day of the year.
Over 10% of all households had a fibre subscription on that date. In order to bridge the digital divide, most provinces have initiated rural broadband plans, often reserving tens of millions of Euros for subsidies or loans.
Multiple Gb/s offerings in Nashville area
AT&T will be offering single, double-, and triple-play bundles through its Gb/s U-verse ® with AT&T GigaPower fibreSM. This is advertised as “a 100% fibre-optic network that delivers both blazing fast Internet speeds and an enhanced TV viewing experience”.
However, AT&T isn’t alone in the Nashville area: Comcast is offering symmetrical 2Gb/s services and Google Fiber plans to offer Gb/s services in the near future. Google is helping connect local entrepreneurs to its experts and cloud platform through the Google For Entrepreneurs program.
Cisco VNI TM says global fixed broadband will hit 43 Mb/s In 2019
According to Cisco Systems’ Cisco Visual Networking IndexTM white paper, annual IP traffic will triple between 2014 and 2019: a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 23 percent. According to the study, annual IP traffic is likely to hit a record of 2 zettabytes (about 2 billion terabytes) by 2019.
Over half of all IP traffic will originate with non-PC devices by 2019. WiFi and mobile devices will account for 66% of IP traffic and wired devices will account for 33% global fixed broadband speeds will reach 43 Mb/s by 2019, up from 20 Mb/s in 2014.
View large image and download the report here.
Submarine Optical Fibre Cables - Global Strategic Business Report
Today, rapidly rising bandwidth demand is having a marked effect on the global submarine cables market. A new report available from Research and Markets analyses the worldwide markets for submarine optical fibre cables.
Verizon migrates exchanges move from copper to fibre
After a test run at seven of its centres, Verizon will migrate all 2,000 of its telephone exchanges from copper to fibre. Reasons included higher reliability of fibre, vast potential savings on energy and maintenance and reduction in real estate costs.
Verizon, the largest US wireless communications company, has stated that copper network revenue is declining by 8-10% annually, while the costs of maintaining a network remain fixed. The company had already substituted a large portion of its copper data and telecommunications cables, but may now accelerate this and possibly expand the approach globally.
Orange maintains Valencia investment plans
Following the integration of triple play operator Jazztel, Orange Spain will invest some € 100 million over the next three years to increase coverage of its FTTH and 4G networks in the Valencia region.
Orange plans to invest € 60 million on further rolling out the fibre optic network currently being implemented in Alicante and Valencia, where some 100,000 households already have fibre access, and extending this to other areas. The company has also forecast investing a further € 32 million in 4G and 4G+ networks until 2018.
New OFCOM CEO tough on broadband speed
UK regulator OFCOM's new CEO Sharon White will impose a new Code of Practice on the largest UK ISPs. If broadband speeds fall below ‘acceptable levels’, consumers will be able to exit their contract at any time without penalty. The UK telecoms industry is frequently criticised for providing broadband speeds that are below advertised levels.
“When Ofcom was established, access to a reliable internet connection and mobile phone was a ‘nice to have’,” stated Sharon White. “Now it is essential to the functioning of the economy, to the way people work and live their lives.”
Find out more about the code here.
Bell Canada brings fibre to Toronto
In April, Canada’s communications company unveiled plans to invest $20 billion to expand its broadband fibre and 4G LTE mobile networks across the country from 2015 to the end of 2020. Part of this billion investment plan is ‘Gigabit Fibe’, a 1 Gb/s service which Bell Canada will be delivering to 1.1 million homes and businesses the City of Toronto. Bell also plans to launch Gigabit Fibe in other cities in Ontario, Québec and the Atlantic provinces. On completion, the company will have installed over 9,000 km of new fibre and upgraded 27 Bell Central Office facilities in Toronto.
Second Annual Conference Plan France Très Haut Débit’
The ‘Plan France Très Haut Débit’, which targets a €20 billion investment to ensure the country is covered with very high-speed broadband, started two years ago. At a recent conference, a progress update on the progress of this infrastructure project was given. Emmanuel Macron, Minister of Economy, Industry and Digital affairs presented an overview of territory covered with broadband and the level of investment in public initiative networks.
FTTH deployments shave strongly accelerated since beginning of 2015:By the end of the second quarter of this year, broadband coverage of local homes, businesses and public services was 44.3%. This is up some 10% from the end of 2013. 11.3% of these locations have FTTH. After an initial increase of € 123 million in 2014, investment in public initiative networks is expected to reach € 560 million in 2015 and exceed 950 million € in 2016.
HelWin2 HDVC cable commissioned
Prysmian Group recently announced the successful commissioning of the High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) offshore grid connection project HelWin2. This has been realised off the North Sea coast of Germany in a contract with the Dutch-German transmission system operator TenneT.
"We are proud to deliver on time such a highly strategic project for the German power grid," says Massimo Battaini, Senior VP Energy Projects at Prysmian Group. HelWin2 now links the converter station in Büttel, north-west of Hamburg, to the Amrumbank West offshore wind park with a 690 MW cable operating at the highest commercially available voltage of ± 320 kV DC. The total length adds up to 130 km - 85 km submarine and 45 km land.
Prysmian partnership for high-speed Italian railway
The Italian AVI (Alta Velocità Italiana) High-Speed Rail network expansion project is currently in the execution phase and its future developments will involve laying new stretches of track linking many large Italian and foreign cities.
Under the agreements reached with the main consortia of Italian firms taking part in the project, Prysmian has supplied various types of cables and accessories for a total of more than 1,100 kilometres of high-speed rail lines. The company has primarily supplied railway signalling cables, special cables for rail track circuits and fibre-optic cables manufactured at Italian plants.
