Prysmian Group secures breakthrough FTTH project in Argentina

Prysmian Group secures breakthrough FTTH project in Argentina

Prysmian Group, world leader in the energy and telecom cables and systems industry, has been awarded with a contract by Telecom Argentina to supply and install an optical network that will provide the passive infrastructure for the first part of their new FTTH network. The contract will involve building a network which will serve 4000 homes and which will have an initial take-up / connection rate of just under 40%. Prysmian Group is working with installation contractor Valtellina Sud América S.A who will conduct the system installation activities.

Telecom Argentina is currently expanding its broadband services by deploying a FTTH network utilising GPON technology and is addressing three discreet urban scenarios – the closed (condominium) environment, individual new buildings (MDU) – both of which are considered ‘ greenfield’ - and open neighbourhood configuration. This initial project is the first stage in Telecom Argentina’s master plan to roll out high speed broadband, focused mainly on the city of Buenos Aires – across all three infrastructure scenarios – in response to growing consumer demand for faster broadband services.

Telecom Argentina selected Prysmian Group as their preferred contractor in an open tender process which attracted interest from system suppliers around the world. As a leading global supplier of FTTH passive technology, Prysmian Group was recognized as having the necessary products and experience to fulfil the project requirements and together with the collaboration of Valtellina this gave Telecom Argentina the confidence to place the turnkey responsibility with Prysmian. With numerous production facilities worldwide Prysmian is very much a local company in Argentina, having a major copper telecom cable production facility in the plant of La Rosa.

Work will start immediately and will continue over a two year period, during which time Telecom Argentina will continue to formulate the next stages of their broadband roll-out. Products to be supplied as part of the contract include all of the necessary optical cables – which contain Prysmian’s in-house produced optical fibres, both standard G652 and BendBright G657, bend insensitive technologies – together with a wide range of passive connectivity components in order to provide the full end to end passive network.

Gustavo Etchepare, CEO of Prysmian Group in Argentina commented – ‘This is a highly significant project for both Telecom Argentina and Prysmian Group. Consumer demand for greater bandwidth continues to grow and the only true future proof way of keeping pace with this demand is to install optical fibre closer and closer to the final customer. Telecom Argentina recognize this and we are both delighted to be working with them on this project and determined to provide them with the system they need to meet their customer needs both now and well into the future’