Prysmian Group to supply Verizon with more than 17 million fibre kilometres of ribbon and loose tube cables, to support the carrier program to deliver 5G to its customers in US.
5G is getting closer in US, and Prysmian is one of the key player involved in the development of the 5th generation mobile network in the Country.
The world leader in in the energy and telecom cable systems industry has been awarded $ 300 million supply agreement from the US telecom company Verizon Communications to support its US network expansion around a next-generation fibre platform that will speed the deployment of 5G services, while improving 4G LTE and other broadband capacity.
Prysmian will supply Verizon with more than 17 million fibre kilometres of cables
With the three-year contract agreement Prysmian will supply Verizon with more than 17 million fibre kilometres of ribbon and loose tube cables, to support the carrier program to deliver consumers the benefits of 5G. As a further step in its plan aimed at commercializing gigabit broadband service to homes and offices via a wireless 5G connection, Verizon last month started to pilot test a new super-fast wireless service with customers in 11 US cities on its newly built 5G network.
5G and fibre
Downloading a full HD movie onto a mobile device in less than seconds or running high resolution video with next-wave content like augmented and virtual reality: the 5G performs more than 40 times faster compared to 4G and will enable to handle data-intensive applications far more smoothly.
As one of the leading companies committed to allow customers taking advantage of this new technology, Verizon has identified 5G fixed wireless access as the first phase of deploying next-generation networks. Yet, as explained by Philippe Vanhille, SVP Telecom at Prysmian Group “As the world goes wireless, wireless is drawn to fibre. Economic growth and consumer demand depend largely on superfast, gigabit broadband connectivity that is always available. Our pronouncement is that this is best delivered over a fixed optical network”.
“As the world goes wireless, wireless is drawn to fibre. Economic growth and consumer demand depend largely on superfast gigabit broadband”
Indeed, both Prysmian and Verizon strongly feel that demand and supply for next-generation passive optical network (NGPON2) will last well beyond 2020 as new technologies like IoT and 5G become reality.
Contributing to the complete realization and the full connectivity of the Internet of Things, probably the most revolutionary evolution of digital technologies, is one of Prysmian’s main task in the next decade. A natural step beyond for a company already used to make “things” connect and interact to each other – and already focusing on the development of a new IoT compliant manufacturing execution system (MES) with the long-term goal of optimizing the production process and entering in the field of Big Data.
The partnership between Prysmian Group and Verizon will set new milestones for further enhancements of mobile connectivity
Based on a long-lasting partnership, as Prysmian Group’s telecom division has supplied Verizon with optical fibre, optical cable and connectivity solutions for more than a decade, the two companies now join forces to develop a network able to support the 5G services, overpassing the existing 4G LTE and other broadband capacity. “As a recognized global leading producer of optical cables, supporting the most advanced infrastructure of many of the world’s telecom operators, Prysmian Group is proud to have been chosen by Verizon as partner for the development of such a strategic project” – said Hakan Ozmen, CEO of Prysmian Group North America.
To support this project and the growth of major telecoms carriers in North America Prysmian Group will make significant investments in its optical cable organization in US, where it has three telecom production sites, two for the production of optical cable and one for optical fibre.
