WCA September 2010

Industry news

FTTH event announced in Italy The Fibre to the Home Council Europe has announced that Milan is to host the world’s largest Fibre to the Home (FTTH) event next year. The FTTH Conference 2011 will take place at the Milano Convention Centre in Fiera Milano on 9 th and 10 th February 2011. Milan was among the first cities where FTTH was deployed. In 2000 alternative operator Fastweb started to roll out a fibre network across the city that now passes some 2 million homes and has nearly 300,000 subscribers. This early success made Italy the first major European economy to break into the FTTH ranking – a league table of nations where more than 1% of households are fibre subscribers. Despite the promising start, FTTH deployment in Italy appears to have stalled. In December 2008, the country was in eighth position in the European rankings, but by December 2009 it had slipped to tenth place, with an unchanged 1.3%. “Italy was a pioneer in fibre deployment,” said Hartwig Tauber, director general of the FTTH Council Europe. “We hope that the presence of the FTTH Conference in Milan will inspire the Italians and encourage them to renew their efforts to roll out fibre, such as the Italian operators’ recent plans to connect the largest Italian cities. The conference provides an unparalleled opportunity to find out, first hand, how fibre can benefit all sectors of society, including service providers, the local community and the national economy.”

Sify Technologies in pact with Gulf Bridge International Sify Technologies, a leader in enterprise and consumer Internet services, has signed an agreement with Middle East-based submarine cable operator Gulf Bridge International to lay international undersea cable in India by 2011. Sify will provide a landing station for Gulf Bridge International cable in Mumbai, Sify Technologies confirmed in a statement. The cable connectivity will also allow telecom operators and other communication companies to connect in the region. “Access to an undersea cable system will allow Sify Technologies to serve the emerging markets in the Middle East as well as African regions, which are also amongst the fastest growing economies in the world. This allows Sify to enable a reliable and secure information superhighway to connect the Middle East to Asia Pacific and the Americas,” said Sify Technologies CEO and managing director Raju Vegesna. The laying of the cable system is scheduled to begin in 2011 and will connect all the Gulf countries via a core ring.

Sify Technologies Ltd – India Website : www.sifycorp.com

FTTH Council Europe – Belgium Website : www.ftthcouncil.eu

Gulf Bridge International – Qatar Website : www.gulfbridgeinternational.com/gbil

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Wire & Cable ASIA – September/October 2010