VIEWPOINT

High quality, robust products are the key to a reliable and sustainable fibre optic networks because they will minimise the cost of installation and carbon emissions says Carlos Lopez, Telecoms business director, Prysmian Group

Cables are not sexy. It is hard to comprehend, I know, but most households and businesses really don’t care what cable is used to deliver their internet service; alongside price, all they care about is reliability, speed and latency of the service.

The key to speed, latency and reliability in fibre optic networks is quality. Prysmian is Europe’s leading fibre optic cable manufacturer and the only major optical cable manufacturer in the UK. Its quality fibre optic cables deliver market leading performance and they can be expected to last for 30 years or even longer.

Quality is fundamental to longevity. Longevity is important because up to 60% of the total investment cost of a fibre optic network, particularly one in a congested urban environment, can be attributable to cable installation. As a comparison, the capital cost of the cable itself and connectivity hardware is about a fifth of that, at around 12% of the total investment.

The consequence of cable failure is no service and very unhappy customers. For the company managing the network, whose reputation is at stake, a cable failure means that it must identify where the problem has occurred, which can be difficult in a congested location. It must then organise for the cable to be repaired, or even replaced, which can be an even bigger and more expensive challenge.

It really is a no-brainer: if a network operator really wants to preserve its reputation and its finances, then the most effective thing they can do is to install a quality fibre optic cable in the first instance to avoid having to replace it any sooner than is necessary.

In addition to being a leader in the manufacture of quality, robust cables, Prysmian is also leading the field when it comes to the performance of fibre optic cables.

By making cables smaller, more can be fitted into an available space. London, for example, has a network of cable ducts that are already heavily congested. To utilise these ducts, Prysmian has developed a range of extremely small fibre optic cables that can be overblown into these already congested ducts.

Globally, a standard optical fibre is 250microns diameter. Each optical fibre contains a series of fragile glass strands which propagate light signals between devices. Each strand is protected by a robust, high performing outer sheath. It is the quality and compatibility of both of these elements that is fundamental to the performance and longevity of the cable.

Prysmian has developed an innovative sleeve, which is equally robust but is smaller in diameter, to enable more fibre strands to be fitted within the same diameter cable, or more data to be carried by a smaller diameter cable. This is an innovation that can result in huge time and cost benefits because it allows networks to be expanded in busy locations without the need to dig new trenches.

Making cables and connectivity parts smaller without compromising quality is far from straightforward; Prysmian is one of the few manufacturers able to do this, which is why these enhanced products come at a premium price. Our products are UK manufactured and we are a Centre of Excellence for Connectivity.

In addition to using existing ducts, the sustainable benefits from using smaller cables are that packaging, transportation and transportation costs are all reduced. And, by enabling a longer length of cable to wound onto a standard spool, an installation will require fewer joints, which will also help reduce installation time.

The benefits of making our products smaller also help minimise their impact on the environment and the carbon footprint from building the network. There are also environmental benefits from using recycled materials in the manufacture of cables, which Prysmian does. However, the biggest environmental benefit by far is from not having to replace a cable any sooner than is necessary simply because that involves digging, and digging is a disaster for any businesses’ sustainability metrics.

As a cable manufacturer looking to sell cable, urging network operators to invest in quality cable that we know will last the test of time may sound contradictory. It is not. Not all cables are the same and Prysmian wants its customers to invest in quality. If a network operator really wants to be environmentally, socially and, most importantly for us, economically sustainable, then the most effective thing they can do is to avoid having to replace its fibre optic network any sooner than necessary.

To hear more…

Carlos Lopez, Telecom Business Director at Prysmian Group, will be speaking at the Connected Britain Conference in Project Rollout on Wednesday 20th September at 11:20am. 

News 

The joint venture is the largest fibre optic alliance in Germany, and is equally owned by the two firms, each taking a 50% stake 

Vodafone Germany and Altice have begun fibre deployment in Germany, through their joint venture OXG Galsfaser.  

The joint venture, which was announced in October last year and given the green light by the European Commission in March, aims to deploy fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) to 7 million homes within a 6 year period, an investment which could reach €7 billion.  

Around 80% of the rollout will be focussed on buildings within Vodafone’s hybrid fibre cable network, and the rest will be outside of it. 

The rollout has begun in the city of Neuss in Western Germany, where OXG excavator are laying down the fibre to build a FTTH network for over 28,000 homes and businesses. In the coming weeks, rollout will commence in Düsseldorf, Marburg, Duisburg and Kassel. 

“A year ago we launched Germany’s largest fibre optic alliance. With the vision of building up to seven million new fiber optic connections. Six months ago, the EU Commission gave the green light for our plans. Now the excavators start digging. Today in Neuss and in 150 cities and municipalities by the end of 2024. This gives the fibre optic expansion in Germany a strong boost. At the same time, we are making our cable network even better with additional fibre optics,” said Vodafone Germany’s CEO Philippe Rogge (translation). 

“We are bringing gigabit internet to cities on our own. We are implementing our expansion without pre-marketing and without a completion quota to be achieved in advance. This creates security – for cities, for municipalities and for all residents. When expanding, our focus is particularly on the housing industry. Our strategy is working: we are receiving very positive feedback from the cities and communities, the housing industry and the owners,” said Stefan Rüter of OXG Glasfaser GmbH (translation). 

Hear from Vodafone at this year’s Connected Germany, 5 – 6 December. Book your tickets now! 

Also in the news:
Unleashing a connected future: Navigating the UK’s broadband landscape
German fibre coverage hits 36%
Potential ‘remedies’ for Spain’s Orange–MásMóvil merger draw in Digi 

Budget UK ISP TalkTalk, which is currently already in the process of trying to deal with pressure from its existing debts by selling off parts of their business (here and here), managed to secure some vital support at the end of last week after global investment firm KKR agreed to provide them with a £75m […]

Contributed Article

Serkan Akcan, Chief Executive Officer, SecHard

SecHard is a cybersecurity software company founded by a constellation of stars and tech gurus. Its story highlights the power of collaboration.

It all began with our CTO, Kadir, a seasoned IT and cybersecurity manager, returning to the academic world for his master’s degree. During his education, he compared his experience with literature reviews and saw the potential for a product that could centralize cybersecurity hardening for different IT products. In 2019, Kadir and his childhood friend, who is now our Chief Software Development Officer, Cihat, developed a prototype. Cihat’s exceptional coding skills are at the core of SecHard’s quality. In 2020, they brought the prototype software to my cybersecurity services company, where I serve as CEO. I’ve been working in the cybersecurity field since 2000 and co-founded a cybersecurity services company in 2005. With this uncommon wealth of experience in cybersecurity, we have a vision for the future.

After seeing SecHard’s prototype, we envisioned that by analysing its shortcomings, we could create a roadmap to address cybersecurity issues worldwide and directly impact cyber resilience. We invested in the prototype software and transformed it into a Cybersecurity Robotic Process Automation product. Our primary goal was to eliminate human-based delays or errors while making cybersecurity improvements through automation and reducing skill and talent shortage gaps. However, we didn’t want to rely solely on our own insights and experiences.

The success of a tech company is directly proportional to the productivity of its employees. In other words, a software company’s most valuable asset is its human resources. Therefore, we endeavoured to bring the best developers and directors to our team. We brought in Ömer, who had held top-level cybersecurity management positions in major companies, as our VP of Product. We appointed Caner, another cybersecurity guru, as Chief Business Officer. Thus, SecHard became a team of stars, and the quality of its products reflects that. 

 

What is your USP? 

SecHard is the industry’s first cybersecurity robotic process automation tool. According to sources like Gartner and IBM, 95% of cybersecurity incidents are preventable with known and recommended security controls. Many hacking stories trace back to inadequately performed cybersecurity tasks. These tasks are routine and repetitive, making them ideal candidates for robotic process automation. Basically, we can automate the following tasks sequentially: 

– Automatic discovery of cyber assets 

– Automated provisioning of access to discovered assets 

– Automatic cybersecurity gap analysis and risk scoring for accessed assets 

– Automatic configuration enforcement to bring non-compliant assets in line with cybersecurity policies 

– Alerting relevant teams about high-risk assets that cannot be enforced for any reason 

This is just a brief overview. Today, SecHard supports more than 110 IT products, including servers, clients, network devices, databases, web servers, and cloud systems. We fully automate audits and improvements required by CIS Benchmark, DISA STIG, NIST, and some local security standards. We can reduce the need for cybersecurity experts to one in five. 

 

How have you got to your current stage of development? 

Today, we have more than 40 customers from diverse sectors such as telecom, finance and banking, manufacturing, energy, logistics, retail, and government, as cybersecurity is a universal challenge. We want to take this game-changing product and our expertise to global markets. We participated in the InnogateUK program, an accelerator program at Istanbul Technical University, where we received in-depth training. Over the past year, we sponsored various conferences in London, Dubai, and Azerbaijan. In the next 6 months, we will attend conferences in London, Munich, Dubai, Riyadh, and Texas. In the next two years, we aim to become a cybersecurity provider with a presence on five continents. 

Managed by a technically competent and experienced team, SecHard is also a well-managed company from a commercial perspective. In a very short time, we have made SecHard a profitable company that can finance all its investments, including marketing and go-to-market, from its own budget. This does not mean that we are closed to investors. We are in discussions with investors who will bring more than just money to SecHard, accelerate our entry into global markets, and continue to seek the right investors in return.  

What does the future hold for your SecHard? 

SecHard is set to become a prominent cybersecurity manufacturer alongside the world’s leading cybersecurity companies, operating on five continents and automating cybersecurity problem-solving for organisations. 

Want to learn more about SecHard? Find them at Stand S6 at this year’s Connected Britain, in London on 20-21 September.

Also in the news:
Unleashing a connected future: Navigating the UK’s broadband landscape
German fibre coverage hits 36%
Potential ‘remedies’ for Spain’s Orange–MásMóvil merger draw in Digi 

A new report has claimed that UK ISP Sky Broadband could be providing, as part of wider anti-piracy measures, more private customer and related financial data to rights-holders and / or related third-party groups than many consumers may be either aware of or comfortable with. Most internet access providers will conduct some monitoring and / […]

Rural focused broadband ISP Gigaclear, which has already built a gigabit-capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network to 450,000 UK premises passed across 24 counties, has added the large village of Kingsclere in Hampshire to their current rollout plan – adding another 1,500 premises upon completion. But they’re not the only locations. According to the Basingstoke Gazette, the […]

The Government’s Building Digital UK agency has published the outcome of last year’s reviews into several key urban areas under their £5bn Project Gigabit broadband rollout, which looked to identify which parts of Greater London, Merseyside and Greater Manchester, Newcastle and Birmingham might be left unserved. Firstly, the usual recap. Project Gigabit aims to extend […]

Back in 2022 we reported that budget UK broadband ISP TalkTalk was running a new trial (here), which gave “some” existing customers a free automatic upgrade to full fibre (FTTP) broadband – provided they were covered by the network and didn’t already have such a package. But fast-forward 13 months and this is no longer […]

News 

UK Regulator Ofcom has released its Summer 2023 Study, based on mobile coverage and fixed broadband availability in the UK, as of April and May this year 

According to the ‘Connected Nations’ report, “Full fibre” (FTTP) now reaches 52% of the UK, equalling 15.4 million households. This is up from 48% in January this year. The report notes that this growth has been predominately driven by deployments from larger fibre operators, but has been supported by a number of smaller altnets, serving individual regions and communities. 

However, the UK’s coverage of fixed “superfast broadband”, remains unchanged at 97%, but Northern Ireland saw an increase of 1%, up to 97%. The 3% unable to access this are likely to be in hard-to-reach areas. The study found that the ‘vast majority’ of the UK can access what is described as ‘decent broadband’, meaning download speeds of at least 10 Megabits per second (Mbit/s) and upload speeds of 1 Mbit/s. 

Gigabit-capable broadband availability has reached 75% of homes, or 22.4 million, up from 21.9 million (73%) in January this year, when their last report was published. 

Regarding mobile coverage, there were no notable increases since the January report, however coverage remains stable, with 93% of the UK predicted to have good outdoor 4G coverage from one operator at least.  

5G coverage continues to expand, with 85% of premises able to access outdoor 5G coverage. 

The usage of 3G continues to decline, with its switch off already underway. Virgin Media O2 confirmed this week that its 3G switch off will begin in 2025, becoming the final major UK operator to do so. 

Want to keep up to date with all of the latest telecoms news? Sign up for Total Telecom’s daily newsletter  

Also in the news:
Smart devices are harvesting excessive consumer data, study finds
Unleashing a connected future: Navigating the UK’s broadband landscape
Consolidation begins in UK fibre market as VMO2’s nexfibre acquires altnet Upp

News 

In its study, Which? analysed the data collection operations of the brands who produce popular smart devices including doorbell cameras, smart speakers and smart washing machines 

New Research from Which? has shown that the makers of smart home devices are collecting more data than is required from their users. This data is then in danger of being shared with third party firms such as social media platforms, without consumers being explicitly aware. 

After analysis of the data collection practises of popular brands, findings of the study included smart doorbell brand Ezvis having the most tracking firms active (including TikTok’s marketing unit, Pangle) Bose smart speakers sharing their user’s data with Meta despite only being supposed to listen when you want them to, LG washing machine necessitating that users provide a date of birth, and smart TVs knowing the viewing habits of users. 

Data collection can be useful to help companies develop better products by optimising them to the need of the consumer. However, it is likely that customers are unaware of the extent to which their data is being used and shared, as a third of people surveyed by Which? do not fully read a device’s privacy policy. 

“Firms should not collect more data than they need to provide the service that’s on offer,” said Rocio Concha, Which? Policy and Advocacy Director, “particularly if they are going to bury this important information in lengthy terms and conditions.” 

Under the General Data Protection Regulations, the data collected by companies must be relevant, and they must be transparent about what data they collect and how it is processed. 

Despite this, companies are often intentionally broad with their reasonings behind using consumer data, giving objectives such as it being in the companies ‘legitimate interests’. 

‘The Information Commissioner’s Office should crack down on data collection by manufacturers and marketing firms that appears to go beyond “legitimate interests”. A proper standard or code of practice should also be put in place to make the rules clearer,’ said Concha. 

Following the release of the report, the Information Commissioner’s Office – a UK government body which upholds information rights in the public interest – have release a statement, emphasising that: 

“Companies must be transparent about the data they collect and how they use it, and ensure that the data is not used or shared in ways that people would not expect. The ICO is developing guidance on data protection and Internet of Things devices and we will act where we don’t see the rules being followed,” said Stephen Almond, Executive Director of Regulatory Risk and the ICO. 

Want to keep up to date with all of the latest telecoms news? Sign up for Total Telecom’s daily newsletter 

Also in the news:
Virgin Media O2 to begin 3G switch off in 2025
Unleashing a connected future: Navigating the UK’s broadband landscape
Consolidation begins in UK fibre market as VMO2’s nexfibre acquires altnet Upp