WCA September 2010

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Industrynews
Wire & Cable ASIA – September/October 2010 19
FTTH event announced in Italy
The Fibre to the Home Council Europe has announced that
Milan is to host the world’s largest Fibre to the Home (FTTH)
event next year. The FTTH Conference 2011 will take place
at the Milano Convention Centre in Fiera Milano on 9th and
10th February 2011.
Milan was among the first cities where FTTH was deployed.
In 2000 alternative operator Fastweb started to roll out a
fibre network across the city that now passes some 2
million homes and has nearly 300,000 subscribers. This
early success made Italy the first major European economy
to break into the FTTH ranking – a league table of nations
where more than 1% of households are fibre subscribers.
Despite the promising start, FTTH deployment in Italy
appears to have stalled. In December 2008, the country
was in eighth position in the European rankings, but by
December 2009 it had slipped to tenth place, with an
unchanged 1.3%.
“Italy was a pioneer in fibre deployment,” said Hartwig
Tauber, director general of the FTTH Council Europe. “We
hope that the presence of the FTTH Conference in Milan will
inspire the Italians and encourage them to renew their
efforts to roll out fibre, such as the Italian operators’ recent
plans to connect the largest Italian cities. The conference
provides an unparalleled opportunity to find out, first hand,
how fibre can benefit all sectors of society, including service
providers, the local community and the national economy.”
FTTH Council Europe – Belgium
Website:
Sify Technologies in pact with Gulf
Bridge International
Sify Technologies, a leader in enterprise and consumer
Internet services, has signed an agreement with Middle
East-based submarine cable operator Gulf Bridge
International to lay international undersea cable in India by
2011.
Sify will provide a landing station for Gulf Bridge
International cable in Mumbai, Sify Technologies confirmed
in a statement. The cable connectivity will also allow
telecom operators and other communication companies to
connect in the region.
“Access to an undersea cable system will allow Sify
Technologies to serve the emerging markets in the Middle
East as well as African regions, which are also amongst the
fastest growing economies in the world. This allows Sify to
enable a reliable and secure information superhighway to
connect the Middle East to Asia Pacific and the Americas,”
said Sify Technologies CEO and managing director Raju
Vegesna.
The laying of the cable system is scheduled to begin in
2011 and will connect all the Gulf countries via a core ring.
Sify Technologies Ltd – India
Website :
Gulf Bridge International – Qatar
Website :