After a hop over the pond to attend the worlds biggest FTTH event, Steve Eccles, one of our Account Directors – gives his round up.

FTTH Global Ranking

After reaching a penetration rate of 1.3% and an uptake rate of 13.1% the announcement came that the UK is now on the FTTH Global Ranking.

“UK regulator, Ofcom has played a major role in promoting investments in FTTH/B across the country. After reducing the prices of wholesale services from Openreach to encourage investments and competition in the market, Ofcom set out a plan to support full-fibre investment in July 2018. The plan follows the direction set in Ofcom’s 2016 Strategic Review of Digital Communications which is aimed at supporting the Government’s ambition of 15 million homes to have access to full-fibre broadband by 2025” – FTTH Council, Europe

“It also shows that we have a long way to go, which is good news as we’re all going to be very busy!!!  The AltNets or INO’s have some very aggressive build plans and also aim to be very competitive with their pricing for Gigabit Broadband, to stimulate healthy competition amongst all the operators, which again is good news for us consumers.” – Steve

Find out more about the UK’s new FTTH position here.

Product Highlights

The conference also featured the latest product launches and new technologies, watch the closing video from the organisers here.

Catching up with some familiar faces

“Overall the event was a must attend for all those with a place in the FTTH market and good to see how Virtua is playing a large part in getting the UK on the official FTTH rankings. It was great to meet with existing and new clients and suppliers, as well as catching up with old acquaintances and new. The only low point would be the 2hr delay going out and 3hrs on the way back due to strong winds! – next year I’m sure the weather will be hot, dry and sunny in Berlin!” – Steve

Want to know more?

Next year the event will be held in Berlin, find out more about the FTTH Conference here.