Prysmian and Cabelte Join forces in Portugal FTTH Business

Milan, 17 December 2009 - Prysmian Telecom Cables and Systems and Cabelte Cabos Eléctricos e Telefónicos, S.A. have signed an agreement under which they will jointly develop and market FTTH (fibre to the home) solutions in Portugal, extending to include also Mozambique and Angola. The agreement will bring together the strength of Cabelte's local production of optical fibres and fibre optic cable together with the considerable experience and broad portfolio of solutions provided by Prysmian in the field of passive optical networks.

Portugal is currently one of the fastest growing FTTH environments in Europe with plans in place to provide maximum fibre penetration into the access network giving high speed broadband services to the majority of the country's inhabitants over the next few years.

Director of Prysmian's global telecom business Mr Hakan Ozmen commented "This is an important partnership for both of our companies. Cabelte has a deep understanding of the local environment and great experience of supplying high quality cable in the region. Together with Prysmian's FTTH systems such as VertiCasa, Sirocco and Quickdraw, I am confident we can provide an optimized solution for the needs of the Portuguese marketplace" Mr Tiago Neiva de Oliveira, CEO of the Cabelte Group added "Our local market is destined to become a focus for FTTH in Europe. The experience of both companies in fibre optic systems, from project design to production and field implementation will keep us a step ahead as the prime equipment supplier for access networks. The differentiation we create here can also be repeated in other countries where we are active."