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FTTH Council Europe Award winners 2013 announced

JT Group and Benoît Felten receive awards at the FTTH Conference’s 10th anniversary edition in London for demonstrating the business case for FTTH innovation.

FTTH CONFERENCE, LONDON, 21 February 2013 – The FTTH Council Europe has singled out JT Group Limited (formerly known as Jersey Telecom) and Benoît Felten, founder of Diffraction Analysis, to receive this year’s Operators Award and Individual Award respectively for their outstanding contributions to FTTH adoption in Europe.

JT received the Operators Award in recognition of its launch in 2012 of a FTTH network implementation project that now passes 51% of the Island’s homes, making Jersey one of the most fibre-connected places in the world. Through its revolutionary five year ‘Gigabit Isles’ fibre programme, JT will provide every consumer and business on the Island with the ability to access speeds of up to 1 Gigabit per second. This means that the Island’s inhabitants will be able to take advantage of emerging technologies and advancements well ahead of many of their peers around the world. An additional benefit has been the launch and creation of an innovative test bed concept marketed as “JT Lab”. Offering a unique opportunity for global technology businesses to access a commercially live ecosystem to trial new applications and services requiring gigabit-bandwidth. Allowing companies the ability to test real products, on real customers, on a real fibre network, in real-time. As well as offering both project management and engineering support.

Graeme Millar, CEO of JT, declared: “Receiving recognition from the FTTH Council Europe for our Gigabit Isles initiative is very welcome news, especially having just recently reached the first anniversary of our roll-out in Jersey. This world-class project is designed to ensure connectivity for the Island’s future and in doing so we are also striving towards making the Channel Islands a digital hub for Europe, which will bring wider benefits for islanders and for the local economy. It is at this point that I must also thank the States of Jersey for their encouragement and support in helping us to realise this vision to deliver a FTTH Network and secure Jersey’s future connectivity, as well as helping JT move further towards fulfilling our vision to become the partner of choice for global telecoms innovation.”

In awarding Benoît Felten the Individual Award, the FTTH Council Europe underlined the importance of his work to increasing the market’s understanding of next generation broadband business models. Blogging about the economic and social impacts of next generation access on Fiberevolution.com and tweeting under the handle of @fiberguy, Felten is unafraid to advocate the economic and service advantages of FTTH while acknowledging the challenges of deployment, thereby helping the market to make sound FTTH decisions and investments.

Mr. Felten stated: “For a number of years I have made it my task to assist service providers in tackling the very real challenges that deploying FTTH represents, not just in terms of technology and roll-out but also in commercial and marketing terms. FTTH changes the telecom ecosystem in fundamental ways, and I’m very grateful to the Council for recognizing that the work I do, while very different in nature from theirs, serves the same goal of easing the transition to next generation access.”

The FTTH Award ceremony brought to a close the FTTH Conference’s 10th anniversary edition, which this year was held in London. The event, which was opened by Gunnar Hökmark, Member of the European Parliament, attracted more than 3000 delegates, 113 top-tier exhibitors from all over the world and included over 170 renowned industry speakers.

This year’s conference emphasized the growing importance of FTTH to the Film and Entertainment sector. Senior Hollywood and Gaming industry executives, including William Fay, Executive Producer of The Hangover, 300 and The Independence Day, Brian O’Shea, Director, The Exchange, Ian Livingstone, Life President, Eidos (Tomb Raider: Lara Croft), and Mitch Singer, Chief Digital Strategy Officer, Sony Pictures Entertainment (Ultraviolet), discussed how FTTH enables new applications and services.

Additional highlights included the keynote speech from Alexander Bard, who is co-author of The Futurica Trilogy, as well as philosopher and Internet sociologist. There were enlightening speeches at the opening ceremony by UK MP and Shadow Minister of Innovation, Science & Digital Infrastructure, Chi Onwurah, and Anthony Whelan, Head of Cabinet of Vice-President Neelie Kroes.

The 11th FTTH Conference will be held in Stockholm from 18 to 20 February 2014.

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About the FTTH Council Europe:
The FTTH Council Europe is an industry organisation with a mission to accelerate the availability of fibre-based, ultra-high-speed access networks to consumers and businesses. The Council promotes this technology because it will deliver a flow of new services that enhance the quality of life, contribute to a better environment and increase economic competitiveness. The FTTH Council Europe consists of more than 150 member companies.
www.ftthcouncil.eu

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by David Brunnen .