News
Prysmian in Webranking Europe Top 20
The 21st edition of Webranking Europe, conducted by Lundquist, has ranked Prysmian Group's corporate website in the Top 20 among Europe’s 500 largest listed companies. In the ranking, Prysmian Group is the number one Italian company in the Industrial Goods & Services sector.
Prysmian Group also achieved good results in the 2017 Webranking of largest Italian listed companies. This assesses the companies’ ability to meet stakeholders’ growing expectations in terms of transparency and dialogue through digital channels. Prysmian Group ranked 10th among 112 Italian companies.
ARCEP visits Europe’s largest fibre plant
Prysmian Group recently welcomed representatives from ARCEP, the French Regulator of the electronic communications and postal sectors. The delegation visited the Group’s manufacturing plants in Douvrin and Calais. With a total plant area of 155,000 m² and 385 employees, the Douvrin facility is the biggest European plant for fibre optic production. Every year this plant produces 25 million km of fibre preforms. The Calais factory is dedicated to the production of optical cables containing 1 to 4,000 fibres and is the first plant involved in Prysmian’s Factory 4.0 pilot project, named ‘Fast Track’.
“Prysmian Group is currently investing to increase its production capacity in order to address the current situation of fibre shortage in the market. The Douvrin plant is included in Prysmian’s ongoing €250 million investment plan for its worldwide optical fibre and cable facilities,” said Philippe Vanhille, SVP Telecom at Prysmian Group.
UK Chancellor Hammond calls for nationwide FTTP by 2033
UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond has called for nationwide deployment of fibre to the premises (FTTP) to by 2033, with 15 million premises to be connected by 2025. “We must embrace digital technology, and ensure Britain is at the forefront of the technological revolution,” said Hammond at the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) Annual Dinner 2018.
“In the 21st century, fibre networks will be the enabling infrastructure that drives economic growth. We’ve already connected more than 95% of the UK to superfast broadband. But we must now take the next big leap forward. (…) If we are to achieve our ambition of a truly high-speed economy, and keep up with our competitors, then we need a step change in our approach.”
Italtel and Open Fiber extend partnership for underserved Italy
In Italy, Italtel is extending its contracts with wholesale FTTH services provider Open Fiber to develop an ultra-broadband network in underserved areas. The intention is to develop an ultra-broadband infrastructure for over 6,700 municipalities across 16 regions. Italtel is designing the FTTH infrastructure, fixed wireless access network, and the network's point of presence.
The overall economic value, related to the multi-year activity, depending on the timing that will be indicated by the client, is worth more than €200 million, according to Italtel. “We are proud to play a significant role in a greatly important project for the country, with significant implications for employment,” said Stefano Pileri, CEO of Italtel.
Orange expands cable connectivity between Asia, Middle East & Africa
To improve connectivity between existing subsea cables, provider Orange is opening new routes from Marseille and Penmarch, France. This is part of Orange's strategy to boost its capacity to meet growth in data, IP and content demand between Asia and West Africa via the Middle East.
Teleography forecasts 10x bandwidth volume growth between these regions from 2017 to 2023. On the Penmarch side, CHLS SMW3 and ACE are linked to Marseille on CHLS SMW4 Saint-Mauront, CHLS IMEWE Bonneveine, and Interxion’s Data Center MRS1.
Africa's FTTH boost
Between 2014 and 2016, the number of homes and premises passed by fibre has more than tripled. The African FTTH Boom - Last Mile Fibre Dynamics, Economics and Outlook in African Markets, a new report from Xalam Analytics, notes that some 85% of homes passed by fibre are in just five markets (South Africa, Kenya, Nigeria, Morocco and Mauritius). However, the ongoing FTTH boom extends to a wider area.
According to the report, "The rise of FTTH is built on a realization that 3G/4G, ADSL and other technologies just aren't going to cut it for some use cases."
Fixed broadband grew over 6% in LatAm in 2017
In 2017, Latin American broadband lines grew 6.1 percent compared to 2016, according to Dataxis. With a market share of 48.1 percent DSL was still the most used technology, but this is losing ground to cable modems (38.6 percent of market share) and for fibre that reached a share of 13.3 per cent (+3.5 points more than in 2016). Household penetration reached 41.5 percent in 2017 (40 percent in 2016).
Chile, Mexico and Argentina have a penetration rate exceeding 50% whereas Colombia is close to the regional average and Brazil is some 6 points below regional average, but with the highest growth rate.
Netflix on Telefónica throughout Europe & LatAm
Netflix and Spain’s largest telco Telefónica have entered into a partnership to integrate streaming service into Telefónica’s platforms in Europe and Latin America. In Spain, the service will be launched by the end of 2018, where the companies agreed integrated this service in Movistar Plus some months ago. Subscribers automatically have access to all Netflix content.
“We want to offer our customers the most compelling video offering possible, whether it’s our own content or third party providers,” said José María Álvarez-Pallete, Executive Chairman of Telefónica. “The partnership with Netflix will significantly enhance our existing multichannel video platforms.”
USA: OTT Trend a Fibre Opportunity
A new report from Grand View Research expects the global OTT market to reach $165.13 billion by 2025. Growth is compounded by fast-rising numbers of mobile and consumer electronics devices. According to Go-Globe, OTT streaming video accounts for more than two thirds of all Internet traffic, in the USA.
By 2020, streaming video is expected to account for a whopping 82% of all Internet traffic, the web application and development firm says. Six in ten US young adults mainly watch TV by streaming, according to Pew Research.
Prysmian congratulates EU on telecommunications framework
The European Parliament, Council, and Commission have agreed on a revised EU telecommunications framework that will stimulate investment in the sector. In spite of extensive negotiations, the core elements of the Commission’s original pro-investment, pro-fibre approach have been maintained. For the first time, enabling access to very high capacity (VHC) networks - defined in relation to the performance characteristics of fibre networks - is a regulatory objective.
Philippe Vanhille, Senior Vice President Telecom Business at Prysmian Group commented: “Rapid deployment of next generation telecommunications networks is a key element for Europe’s future competitiveness and growth. I am glad to see that European policy makers have settled on a framework that will facilitate this roll-out”.
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