News

Record FTTH numbers in Spain

According to data from regulator CNMC, Spain had more than 8.8 million FTTH lines in February, more than 1.9 million more than the previous year. In the same period the number of DSL lines dropped by 1.3 million.

In April of this year, Spain's Ministry of Economy published its annual broadband coverage report. This shows that access to at least 100 Mb/s improved 5% to 81% of the population, while 85 percent had access to at least 30 Mb/s in the year to June 2018. Government programmes are aiming to increase these rates to 89% and 98% respectively by 2020.

Prysmian: positive results for 2018 and Q1 2019

In the first quarter of 2019, results amounted to €2,771 million with a +1.9% organic growth calculated on a combined basis. This was mainly driven by the Telecom Business (+9.8% organic growth), with a double-digit increase in optical cables and within the Multi Media Solutions segment, and a robust performance reported by Energy & Infrastructure, with Power Distribution posting a +15.7% organic growth. North America contributed significantly (+5.4% organic growth). Latin America reported a +6.0% organic growth. Europe remained stable. Net profit came in at €89M (€28M in Q1 2018).

Over the full year 2018, combined sales including General Cable amounted to  €11,524M with +2.8% organic growth. Including General Cable’s contribution, the economic value generated by Prysmian Group was €10,240 million. Adjusted combined EBITDA (including General Cable for full year 2018) came in at €767M including WL Project provisions totalling €165M FY 2018

Oman: 20 Mb/s over wireless pilot project

Aiming to close the digital gap in the Sultanate of Oman, OMAN BROADBAND and OOREDOO OMAN are conducting a wireless pilot project in rural and remote villages in Oman. Inster, a wireless solution provider that has carried out similar projects successfully in Europe, is conducting the proof of concept.

Microwave links will initially deliver 20 Mb/s to 38 houses and two schools with OMAN BROADBAND’s fibre network backhaul ensuring high speed and robust service availability. The open access network will be open to other operators as soon as the service is commercialised.

Alternative providers on the rise in the UK

A report from the Independent Networks Co-operative Association (INCA) and Point Topic estimates that UK alternative full fibre broadband ISPs grew their coverage by 30% in 2018, reaching 1,298,185 premises. Related providers are forecast to reach 3.38m premises by the end of 2020 and 15.96m by 2025.

As INCA looked at independent operators such as B4RN, Cityfibre, Gigaclear and Hyperoptic, whilst excluding Openreach’s FTTP rollout, its overall figure for alternative reach is lower than that given in a recent  Ofcom’s update (here), which states that full fibre networks had reached 1.8 million premises by January 2019 – or 7% of the UK.

Prysmian showcases innovation at ANGA COM

At the recent at ANGA COM Trade Fair 2019 in Cologne, Germany, Prysmian Group showcased its most advanced telecom products designed to meet the evolving needs of its customers. These included the 6,912 fibre MassLink™ cable with FlexRibbon™ technology, which offers the highest fibre count within the industry, with a cable diameter small enough to fit into a 50.8mm duct.

The Group also showcased its range of advanced products to meet the evolving needs of its customers, including its full offer for optical connectivity solutions. This included the Karona Overblow System which enables installation of high density optical fibre cables into pre-existing routes, as well as its portfolio of multi-conductor FTTA hybrid cables for mobile applications.

30% increase in New Zealand’s cloud spending

Spending on public cloud services by New Zealand businesses grew 30.1% year-on-year (YoY) reaching $1.01b, according to research firm IDC. The fastest growth was seen in Platform as a service (PaaS) (45.6% from 42% in 2017), with Software as a Service (SaaS) and Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) declining. Artificial intelligence, and data management capabilities accounted for 62.9% of PaaS revenues in 2018.

Sri Lanka’s Mobitel invests $50m in 5G rollout

Mobile network operator Mobitel is investing over $50 million in 2019 to further develop its infrastructure and deploy a 5G network. The company CEO has stated that 5G trials are already underway, focusing on data transfer speeds ten times higher than those of its existing 4G LTE network. In 2018, the company invested in converting 3G base stations to 4G. The 3G network will be dropped in the near future.