Business

Delegates at the forthcoming FTTH Conference in Stockholm this month are invited to attend a workshop on how to maximise returns from FTTX projects.

The half-day event will be presented by representatives from FiberPlanIT, Alcatel-Lucent, Comptel, GE, iToolsOnline and TE Connectivity, and is aimed at providing an overview of a typical FTTX project with different way to ensure the maximum return on investment.

Alcatel-Lucent has signed a contract with the Libyan International Telecommunication Company to build a 1,000 km undersea cable system linking the country’s capital, Tripoli, to Benghazi, and providing the broadband connectivity needed in support of ongoing efforts to revive the Libyan economy.

The Dominican Republic is gearing up to develop a national fibre optic network, according to the Caribbean country's telecoms regulator Indotel.

The development is aimed at improving internet speeds across the country as well as providing better and faster telephone and cable services – while improving communications with the rest of the world.

A spokesperson for Indotel told Dominican Today: 'This network could be compared with a major highway, where all kinds of cars travel at high speeds.'

BT is invest a further £50 million into its commercial fibre broadband programme over the next three years, it has announced. The investment will benefit more than 30 cities, helping to make high speed broadband available to more than 400,000 additional premises.

The telecom operator is spending more than £3 billion on deploying fibre broadband and its open-access fibre network already passes more than 18 million homes and businesses. The footprint is likely to grow rapidly as rural fibre programmes are delivered.

Telent Technology Services has been awarded an extension to its on-rail telecoms support and maintenance contract with Level 3, formally Global Crossing UK. Telent has been supporting Level 3 across the UK since March 2009 and has now been granted a multi-million pound, five-year extension to the original contract, ensuring continuity until March 2019.

Alcatel-Lucent is to enable SFR, one of France’s leading telecommunications providers, to meet increasing demand for ultra-broadband access from both mobile and fixed-line customers by deploying its 1830 Photonic Service Switch as the key element of the operator’s legacy optical network moving to one that is all-IP transport-based.
 

Hawaiki Cable, the New Zealand company planning to build a 14,000km cable system between New Zealand, Australia, Hawaii and the US west coast, has signed up another customer.

Auckland-based trans-Tasman WAN provider Solarix Networks has agreed to buy capacity on the New Zealand, Australia and US segments of Hawaiki’s cable.
Solarix director Flemming H. Rasmussen said the 10-year, multi-million dollar deal with Hawaiki would improve Solarix’s trans-Tasman service resiliency and introduce price competition.

The OSA Foundation has launched a fundraising campaign to establish an award in honour of the late optical communications pioneer Tingye Li. The Tingye Li Innovation Award will recognise top-performing young professionals who have demonstrated innovation in their research presented at the annual OFC Conference and Exposition.

Time Warner Cable has completed the purchase of DukeNet Communications for $600 million, acquiring an 8,700-mile fibre optic network in the south-eastern US states of North and South Carolina.

The purchaser wants to use the additional network to connect and serve business customers with services such as voice, high-speed internet and cloud-enabled hosting. It also expects to use the extra capacity to grow its carrier business, which provides network access to wireless providers. Time warner Cable provides services to more than 10,000 cell towers around the USA.

Prysmian Group has announced a new organisational structure and management appointments with the goal of stimulating the group's growth strategy and of anticipating market developments by aiming to further improve its focus on customer service. The new organisational structure will be effective from 1 January.
 
Fabio Romeo, currently executive vice president of the energy business, will take responsibility for corporate strategy and development, with the mission of giving further impetus to the group’s growth.