NEWS HIGHLIGHTS
sustainability standards, with measures in place to ensure low emissions. Tese include the selection of a DEME Group Living Stone vessel powered by dual-fuel capabilities for installation of the marine cable. Te vessel will also use biodegradable grease and oil in addition to heat recuperation to decrease fuel consumption, and minimise carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxide and sulphur oxide emissions. In addition, to mitigate the impact of
The total number of homes passed with FTTH and FTTB in the EU39 reached nearly 182.6 million in September
81.9 million subscribers in September 2020. Leading the charge was France, which added 2,787, 000 new subscriptions, with Russia second at 1,681,000 new FTTH/B subscribers. Spain rounded out the top 3 with 1,436,000. Te Market Panorama also found that the
alternative network and internet service providers (altnets) still constitute the largest portion of FTTH/B players, with a contribution of around 57 per cent of the total fibre expansion. Interestingly, many countries in which legacy infrastructure still dominates have modified their strategies, deploying more FTTH solutions, migrating from existing copper- based and cable-based networks towards fibre and are even intensifying copper switch-off. However, three historically copper-strong countries (UK, Germany and Italy) accounting for almost 60 per cent of homes leſt to be passed with fibre in the EU27+UK region.
JUNE June saw an appetite for investment, as new UK
ISP and network builder, Upp announced its commitment to investing £1bn to deploy a full fibre network to 1 million premises in eastern England by 2025. Te newco, which began its life in 2020 (then
known as FibreMe), said that it plans to boost the UK’s competitive position in the European digital market and create more than 600 new jobs in a sustainable way. Te company’s management team aims to level up market towns and coastal areas across Norfolk and Lincolnshire that are currently underserved. Te funding for the plan was fully commited
by international investment business LeterOne. Having secured the necessary regulatory approvals, Upp has been deploying its
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own regional fibre backhaul networks, with contractors already building in towns in Norfolk and Lincolnshire. During the build phase, Upp has been extensively using Openreach’s ducts and poles, as well as access assets from other infrastructure owners to accelerate deployment and minimise traffic disruption. Te ISP said that it would use next-generation
technology to power the new network, supported by partner suppliers such as Nokia, Linksys, Fujikura and
Salesforce.com. Supply chain partners were carefully selected based on their commitment to social, environmental and sustainability priorities. Drew Ritchie, Upp’s chief executive officer commented at the time: ‘I am thrilled to lead such a talented, dedicated and experienced team. We are excited to partner with an investor who not only matched our passion and ambition for the opportunity but are commited to developing the UK’s digital infrastructure.’
JULY Subsea was the topic that piqued Fibre Systems
readers’ interest in July, with the announcement that Zayo would deploy a diverse subsea cable route named ‘Zeus,’ connecting the UK to mainland Europe. Te highly fortified, hybrid, ultra-low-loss
(ULL) cable will be operational by the end of the first quarter of 2022, and run parallel but diverse to the company’s existing Circe North subsea route, directly connecting the UK to mainland Europe via Lowestoſt, in the UK and Zandvoort, in the Netherlands. Tis could provide an upgrade in
capabilities, with a potential capacity of more than 4,000Tb/s. Zayo says that the project will adhere to the highest engineering and
accidental damage from humans - which the International Cable Protection Commitee estimates to take place between 100 and 200 times per year, the cable will have a target burial depth of two to three metres below the surface of the sea bed, providing enhanced protection and increased service availability. Hexatronic’s high-fibre-count cable was selected for the project, which includes high-capacity 192 fibre, 100 per cent double armoured cable with increased crush resistance and ULL fibre technology, for additional resilience. Jesper Aagaard, president of Zayo, Europe
commented: ‘Te deployment of the subsea Zeus route demonstrates our commitment to expanding our network footprint in Europe while also providing high-quality, essential connections for customers between key global markets. Tis investment will support the steep rise in global demand for bandwidth and capacity in data use and transfer across multiple sectors, primarily driven by a shiſt towards cloud services and the rapidly expanding number of networked devices and connections. July also saw a team of researchers from
the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT) in Japan set a new world record for internet speed at 319Tb/s, beating the previous record of 178Tb/s set by the University College of London in 2020. Te Japanese team has demonstrated S, C and L-bands transmission over long-haul distances in a 4-core optical fibre with standard outer diameter (0.125 mm). Te team, which was led by Benjamin
Putnam, constructed a transmission system that makes use of wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) technology by combining different amplifier technologies, to achieve a transmission demonstration with data-rate of 319Tb/s, over a distance of 3,001km.
AUGUST Mergers, acquisitions and investments came
back to the fore in August, firstly with the announcement that London altnet, Community Fibre acquired a majority stake in Box Broadband, a Surrey-based full fibre network operator. Box Broadband provides a full fibre network
in Surrey and West Sussex and has passed 7,000 homes. Community Fibre’s investment
Fibre Yearbook 2022
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