Investment supports 5G development in North America

11th May 2017

Alice Matthews

0 0

A significant supply agreement has been awarded to Prysmian Group from the US telecom company Verizon Communications to support the company’s US network expansion around a next-gen fibre platform that will speed the deployment of 5G services, while improving 4G LTE and other broadband capacity. The three-year contract is worth approximately $300m and will include supply of more than 17 million fibre kilometres of ribbon and loose tube cables.

“As a recognised global leading producer of optical cables, supporting the most advanced infrastructure of many of the world’s telecom operators, Prysmian Group is proud to have been chosen by Verizon as partner for the development of such a strategic project,” said Hakan Ozmen, CEO of Prysmian Group North America.

Both Prysmian and Verizon feel strongly that demand and supply for next-gen passive optical network (NGPON2) will last well beyond 2020 as new technologies like 5G and the IoT become reality. Prysmian will make a significant investment through 2018 in its US based optical cable organisation to support this project and the growth of major telecoms carriers in North America. The Group has a strong heritage in manufacturing optical fibre and cable for a broad range of applications, and has three telecom production sites in the United States, two for the production of optical cable and one for optical fibre.

Prysmian Group’s telecom division has qualified as an optical fibre, optical cable and connectivity solutions provider to Verizon for more than a decade.

Viju Menon, Verizon's Chief Supply Chain Officer, said: “Prysmian Group’s telecom division is an established optical cable and connectivity solutions provider to Verizon. This strategic supply agreement helps ensure we can ramp supply in order to expand our network capacity and speed 5G deployment.”

Philippe Vanhille, SVP Telecom at Prysmian Group, commented: “As the world goes wireless, wireless is drawn to fibre. Economic growth and consumer demand depend largely on superfast, gigabit broadband connectivity that is always available. Our pronouncement is that this is best delivered over a fixed optical network.”

An aspect of the Prysmian Group and Verizon supply deal involves diversity partnerships, a concept of innovation that goes beyond technology, to include social and sustainability imperatives. A percentage of business will flow through material management services offered by third party handlers that are owned and operated by certified woman business owned enterprises.