FTTH Council Europe sets out priorities
June 10, 2020
By Colin Mann
During its first virtual General Assembly, trade body the FTTH Council Europe adopted its work programme and priorities and elected new Board members and Work Committee Chairs.
The European Commission recently presented an ambitious recovery plan for the EU economy also focusing on green and digital transformations. According to the FTTH Council Europe, the past few months have shown that connectivity, supported by robust and reliable digital infrastructures plays and will continue to play a crucial role in supporting the evolution of society and build a more resilient and sustainable economy.
The FTTH Council Europe is ready to contribute to the discussion with fact-based and high-quality studies and data and is therefore outlining its upcoming projects.
Update on the State of Fibre
The Council’s latest FTTH/B Market Panorama shows that significant progress have been made in the deployment of FTTH/B networks and it is now planning to release a breakdown of fibre deployments in both urban and rural areas in a selection of European countries to highlight where the digital divide is most prominent. It is essential to maintain a focus on Very-High Capacity networks to ensure that all end-users can benefit from the digital transition.
Contribution of the fibre sector to the fight against climate change and migration to full fibre
In addition to facilitating more remote working and education, fibre networks are also pivotal to the transition to a greener economy, as they use much less energy than copper-based infrastructure and thus can significantly lower emissions produced by the telecom and ICT sector. The FTTH Council Europe will delve into the issue of energy efficiency of the FTTH/P networks and will further pursue its work on copper switch-off and migration to fibre by releasing a follow-up report on the challenges and potential solutions to ease the transition to fibre infrastructures.
Fibre and 5G convergence: cost-saving opportunities
With the transition to fibre also being at the core of the 5G deployment, the FTTH Council Europe will release an update to its fibre/5G convergence study published in 2019 focusing on brownfield areas. Last year’s study showed that a coordinated 5G and FTTH deployment in greenfield areas could lead to very significant savings of the FTTH component of 5G deployments compared to an uncoordinated approach.
Monetising on fibre: best practices and misleading fibre advertisement
Finally, while digital skills are necessary for consumers to make the most of the benefits of a full-fibre society, misleading fibre advertising is still hampering fibre take-up. The FTTH Council Europe will present a study that aims to identify European best practices in fibre advertising and calls for clear guidelines on fibre advertisement as fostering uptake requires consumers to be properly informed about which products meet the desired criteria and what benefits they confer.
Board of Directors and Committee Chairs
At the General Assembly, new Board Members of the FTTH Council Europe and Committee Chairs were elected. They are all united in working towards the mission of the Council to accelerate ubiquitous, full fibre-based connectivity empowering a leading Digital Society throughout Europe.
The Board of Directors consists of the following nine members in 2020:
- Eric Festraets, Nokia, President
- Steffen Leiwesmeier, Hamburg Commercial Bank AG, Treasurer
- Eric Joyce, ADTRAN
- Vincent Garnier, Commscope
- Raf Meersman, Comsof
- Mike Knott, Corning
- Christof Sommerberg, Deutsche Glasfaser Holding GmbH
- Luigi Gambardella, Open Fiber
- Jan Schindler, Prysmian Group