FTTH Council Europe details industry priorities for European Institutions post 2019, announces new officers

News and Business

During its June 2019 General Assembly, the FTTH Council Europe formally adopted its working programme and announced the results of the annual election of its President, Board members and Working Committee Chairs.

Following May’s European elections, a new Parliament soon to be entering office, and a new College of European Commissioners to be appointed in the near future, the FTTH Council Europe commented that it is keen to build on its regular engagement with EU and national policy makers as a constructive contributor to the optical communications discussion and is therefore now outlining its upcoming projects.

The Council is to release a follow-up report to the copper switch-off study published in March, 2019. It commented, “Even though the benefits of copper switch-off represent a win-win both for end-users and the industry, and the transition to fibre will have a positive impact on the environment by reducing energy consumption, only a handful of Member States made tangible progress in the migration process.

“The approach remains very patchy in Europe with most of the Member States lacking a strategy with regards to copper switch-off. We are in a period of technology change and the way this process will be managed will be crucial in ensuring that no citizen is left behind. We are planning to issue policy recommendations on this issue and to propose solutions to tackle the regulatory hurdles, which prevent Europe from becoming a full fibre continent.”

The FTTH Council Europe added that it will also pursue its work on fibre/5G convergence: “Fibre deployment will be the main underlying infrastructure of 5G and it will be instrumental to the European 5G leadership. The FTTH Council Europe is therefore convinced that fibre availability should be part of the measurement of 5G readiness and is willing to put its expertise and knowledge at the service of the European Institutions by contributing actively to their work.”

Misleading fibre advertisement will also be on the agenda of the FTTH Council Europe. We believe that misleading fibre advertisement prevents consumers from making an informed choice about the products, which are available to them and risks hindering the fourth objective of the recently adopted European Electronic Communications Code, which is fibre take-up. Our request is to complement the new Code with guidelines on fibre advertisement.

Finally, new Board members of the FTTH Council Europe and Committee Chairs have been elected. They are all united in working towards the mission of the association to accelerate ubiquitous, full fibre- based connectivity empowering a leading Digital Society throughout Europe.

According to the study “Copper switch-off, A European benchmark” published in March 2019 and realised by WIK for the FTTH Council Europe, copper switch-off results in 40-60% energy savings due to the lower power consumption of fibre. Further information is available at www.ftthcouncil.eu/documents/Reports/2019/Copper_switch-off_analysis_12032019_short.pdf

New Board of Directors

President: Kees de Waard, Skylane Optics, The Netherlands

Treasurer: Vincent Garnier, Commscope, France

Eric Joyce, ADTRAN, Ireland

Mike Knott, Corning Optical Communications, United Kingdom

Magnus Angermund, Hexatronic Group, Sweden

Conny Franzén, Inteno Group AB, Sweden Eric Festraets, Nokia, Belgium

Luigi Gambardella, Open Fiber, Italy

Antoni Bosch, Prysmian, Spain

Kees de Waard replaces President Ronan Kelly (ADTRAN) whom we would like to sincerely thank, as well as outgoing Treasurer Ismail Adibelli for their remarkable commitment and continuous hard work during their years in the Board of the FTTH Council Europe.

For more information, visit www.ftthcouncil.eu