Telecom Argentina planning major FTTH network

Italy’s Prysmian Group has won a contract with Telecom Argentina to supply and install an optical network that will provide the passive infrastructure for the first part of its new fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) network.

The contract will involve building a network which will serve 4,000 homes and which will have an initial take-up/connection rate of just under 40 per cent.

Work is expected to start immediately, with installation contractor Valtellina Sud América being employed to conduct the system installation activities.

Telecom Argentina is currently expanding its broadband services by deploying a FTTH network based on GPON technology, and is addressing three different urban scenarios: the closed (condominium) environment, individual new buildings (MDU), and open neighbourhood configuration.

This initial project is the first stage in Telecom Argentina’s plan to roll out high-speed broadband, focused mainly on the city of Buenos Aires across all three infrastructure scenarios, in response to growing consumer demand for faster broadband services.

Prysmian already operates a major copper telecom cable production facility in the plant of La Rosa, and won the contract with Telecom Argentina after an open tender process which attracted bids from system suppliers around the world.

Products to be supplied as part of the contract include all of the necessary optical cables – which contain Prysmian’s in-house produced optical fibres, both standard G652 and BendBright G657, bend insensitive technologies – together with a wide range of passive connectivity components in order to provide the full end-to-end passive network.