Prysmian’s optical fibre plant in Douvrin hosts Europacable event

15/05/2017 - 02:00 AM


Today, Europacable, the European Association of all leading European wire and cable producers, hosted its ‘Optical fibre cables: Europe´s future-proof telecommunications infrastructure’ event at Prysmian’s optical fibre facility in Douvrin, France, Europe’s largest fibre plant.

The visit was organised through the Europacable Digital Team under the leadership of its chairman, Philippe Vanhille. Europacable welcomed some 40 representatives of the so called “Broadband Competence Offices” (BCOs) from across 18 EU Member States as well as representatives of the European Commission DG Connect.

BCOs are currently being set up as a tool to facilitate broadband roll out across Europe. Their key objective is to support project implementation by helping to access EU funding schemes and to ensure that there is a profound knowledge about the latest available technologies.  It is in this context that Europacable welcomed the opportunity provide an introduction to technical aspects of telecommunication networks, a profound insight into key aspects of optical fibre and cable technology and implications in the regulatory framework. There were also offered a first-hand experience of state of the art optical fibre production by Europe´s leading optical fibre and cable manufacturers.

Jan Dröge (Schuman Associates), Head of the European Commission’s Broadband Competence Offices, took part in the event. Jan has been instrumental in setting up a Support Facility for the national and regional Broadband Competence Offices (BCOs). “The Support Facility will help set up new BCOs, promote best practices and share knowledge and experience on broadband investments. Our focus will be on rural areas where connectivity challenges are highest. The overall objective is of course to deliver on the EU Digital Agenda targets on broadband rollout, notably a universal coverage of 30 Mbps, and 50% of users connect at 100 Mb/s.”

“We are honoured that the EU’s Broadband Competence Offices have chosen a facility from one of Europacable’s members to learn more about optical fibre technology made in Europe”, commented Philippe Vanhille, Senior VP Telecom Business of Prysmian Group and Chairman of the Europacable Digital Team. “This underlines the importance of the cooperation between the European institutions and Europacable. As Europacable we believe that it is of utmost importance to do Europe´s broadband roll out right. With that we mean high quality cables ensuring long-term service reliability, ease of maintenance and upgrading as well as high cost efficiency over the entire lifespan.”