Dubai: The UAE currently leads the global rankings in Fibre-to-the-Home (FTTH) deployment with a penetration rate of 64.8 per cent, according to a report by the FTTH Council Mena (Middle East and North Africa).
The report says that other countries in the region in particular Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar, Morocco, Algeria, Egypt and Turkey are also investing in this technology.
“The FTTH market in the Middle East is growing at a rate that far surpasses even that in mature IT markets,” says Jean-Pierre Labry, Executive Vice-President of Reichle & De-Massari (R&M) Middle East, Turkey and Africa.
The company has been working closely with major telecom providers in Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Oman for large scale FTTH projects.
“These countries are venturing into this territory for the first time. While this is an advantage considering they are not faced with costly upgrades of legacy networks, it does present unique challenges and risks,” he said.
Fibre has become a necessity and operators are paying due consideration to the future-proofing of these deployments.
Shibu Vahid, Head of Technical Operations, R&M Middle East, Turkey and Africa said, “FTTH makes big demands on building entry points. This is where it is decided whether you can react quickly and profitably to changes and installation requirements and what will lead to a competitive edge in the end customer’s business. The solutions we provide offer network operators flexibility in planning and implementation of building connections in their FTTH systems.”
