Bulgaria's Vivacom deploys GPON tech to boost broadband

Bulgarian service provider Vivacom has chosen gigabit passive optical networking (GPON) solutions from Alcatel-Lucent to enable faster broadband speeds for its customers and ultimately the delivery of new services, including high-definition video.

Following deployment of the new equipment, Vivacom will be capable of providing 100 Mbps broadband services to customers in the cities of Sofia, Varna and Plovdiv in 2012 – with additional cities to follow.

A total of one millinon Bulgarian households are expected to benefit from higher connection speeds as well as increased service reliability, while Vivacom will also benefit from a reduction in operating costs.

There were 1.14 million broadband subscribers in Bulgaria by the end of the first quarter of 2011, with Vivacom holding 382,500 DSL subscribers. The company announced in June 2011 that it plans to invest €600m in a fibre-to-the-building (FTTB) network which will cover 1mn Bulgarian households by 2014.

Existing IPTV services in the country include Vestitel, which offers over 50 channels on its ‘Tivia’ service in the cities of Sofia, Burgas and Tarnovo, and M-Tel, which launched its VOD-only service ‘Quarto’ in 2009 in the cities of Sofia, Varna, Burgas and Devnya.