DST Telecom Selects Nexans for Portugal FTTH Project

PARIS – Portugal’s DST Telecom Group has awarded Nexans, a provider of fiber cable equipment, a three-year contract to supply an aerial extractable cable system for FTTH projects in rural areas of the country.

The DST contract, for which Nexans will initially supply 1,000 km (621 miles) of aerial extractable cable starting this month, is the first order for the new cable that is making its debut at this year’s FTTH Conference in London.

The new cable has been developed to help operators first to minimize their financial risk in the initial stage, second to reduce the total cost of ownership of their FTTH deployments in low to medium-density subscriber areas typical of rural regions. By reducing in-place costs by up to around 20 percent for the CAPEX and OPEX, compared with traditional aerial cables, such as ADSS (All Dielectric Self Supported Cable), the Nexans solution can help operators to address the digital divide by bringing ultra high speed broad band services to remote parts of the world.

Flexibility for Future Connections without Cable Loops
Nexans’ approach to extractable FTTH cable technology is well proven in underground ducted installations in metropolitan environments. This latest development is adapted to provide a flexible and cost-approach for aerial installations in rural areas where ducting is unavailable and the take up of subscribers is unpredictable.

The key advantage of the extractable design is that the aerial cable can pass subscribers on its initial installation, but still allows the flexibility for future connections without the need to install unsightly cable loops. Furthermore, the additional connections can be made with no risk of disruption to existing live services.