INSIGHT 2|2019

25 FOCUS ON MEETING INCREASINGDEMAND FOR OPTICAL SOLUTIONS With an ongoing investment plan of around €400 million in the period 2017-2020, we can confirm our ability to meet customers’ increasing demand for optical cable solutions. A significant part of this investment is being implemented at the Group’s US facilities, and includes an increase in the production capacity of the new rollable ribbon cable FlexRibbon™, designed and manufactured in the US. We have five telecom production sites in America, four dedicated to manufacturing optical cables and one to optical fibres. SUPPORTING VERIZON TO EXPAND US NETWORK. Prysmian Group has been awarded a $300 million supply agreement from the US telecomcompany Verizon Communications to support our US network expansion around a next-generation fibre platform that will speed the deployment of 5G services, while improving 4G LTE and other broadband capacity. According to Verizon: “There are no IoT, smart device proliferation, cloud computing or self-driving cars without 5G. And there is no 5Gwithout fibre”. Verizon’s architecture is based on deep fibre, a shared deep optical distribution network NG-PON2 that provides for today’s demands and all future services and applications. The Group has presented its latest innovations for high-quality, future-proof networks at the ANGA COM Trade Fair in Cologne, Germany. We showcased our 6,912 fibre MassLink™ cable with FlexRibbon™ technology, which provides the highest fibre count within the industry. We also showcased the Karona Overblow System — which enables the installation of high-density optical fibre cables into pre-existing sub- ducted routes that contain existing legacy cables — as well as our extensive portfolio of multi-conductor FTTA hybrid cables for mobile applications. LATEST TELECOM INNOVATIONS PRESENTED IN GERMANY ERICSSON FORECASTS 1.9 BILLION 5G SUBSCRIPTIONS BY 2024; last year’s forecast was significantly lower at 1.5 billion (+27%). 5G coverage will reach 45% of the world’s population by the end of 2024, which could surge to 65% as spectrum-sharing technology enables 5G deployments on LTE frequency bands. By then, 5G networks are projected to carry 35% of global mobile traffic.