Network Communications News (NCN) May 2017 | Page 6

INDUSTRY NEWS
Prysmian signs $300m optical cable supply
agreement with Verizon Communications
Prysmian Group has been awarded a significant supply agreement from Verizon Communications to support the company’s 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.
The three-year contract is worth approximately $300m and will include the supplying of more than 17 million fibre kilometres of
ribbon and loose tube cables.
Hakan Ozmen, chief executive of Prysmian Group North America, said: ‘As a recognised 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.’
In a joint statement, Prysmian and Verizon said they both feel strongly that demand and supply for the next-generation
passive optical network (NGPON2) will last well beyond 2020 as new technologies like 5G and the IoT become reality.
Viju Menon, Verizon’s chief supply chain officer, added: ‘Prysmian Group’s telecom division is an established optical cable and
connectivity solutions provider to Verizon. This strategic supply agreement helps ensure we can ramp supply in order to expand
our network capacity and speed 5G deployment.’
For further information visit: www.prysmiangroup.com
France-IX hits milestone
of 10 100Gbps ports delivered
France-IX, the premier Internet Peering Service Provider in France, has announced that
it delivered its tenth 100Gbps port last month.
Franck Simon, France-IX’s president, said: ‘We are very pleased and proud to have
reached the important milestone of 10 100Gbps ports so rapidly after its launch.
‘This milestone highlights not only the dynamism of the interconnection market in
France, but also France-IX’s maturity level, allowing an effective community aggregation
and the development of new services.
‘From major carriers to content networks, we are helping our members to meet ever
growing demand from an online content-hungry public and to expand their capacity in
line with future traffic needs without being afraid of reaching saturation point.’
The first members to sign up for the 100Gbps service were OVH for France-IX Paris
and Reliance Jio for France-IX Marseille.
A variety of leading Internet networks have chosen to increase their France-
IX peering capacity via 100Gbps por ts including French carriers (Bouygues
Telecom), high growth international carriers (Reliance Jio), public cloud providers
(Amazon, Microsoft), content delivery networks (Limelight), content and hosting
ser vice providers (OVH, Online, Yahoo), as well as video game developer and digital
distribution companies (Valve).
Mr Simon added: ‘At France-IX, we focus on how to provide our members with
what they need to meet the demands of their customers, from capacity to optimal
connectivity and market based prices.’
For further information visit: www.franceix.net
6 | May 2017