Tratos has announced a new 20 million€ fibre cable order from Italian telecoms company TIM. The company has supplied Telecom Italia since 1984 and provides 26% of the Italian market with fibre cable.
Tratos’ latest contract for the telecoms giant will see it supplying the order for TIM’s Fibercop. The order is the continuation of a relationship that has remained strong for more than 30 years. It has been a significant contributor to Tratos’ rapidly increasing share in the global telecoms market and is recognition of the independent manufacturer as an innovative producer of the highest quality advanced technology cable for the sector.
Tratos President Albano Bragagni said: “Tratos continues to win favour with telecoms companies thanks to the quality of the technology and the levels of service we offer. What the telecoms industry needs, as the appetite for quick and reliable connectivity increases, is high-quality fibre optics that offer consistent high performance. In other words, the quality cable is the smart investment – because choosing the best allows networks to stay competitive.”
TIM’s own statement confirmed its commitment to supporting Italy and the country’s economic growth by contributing to the development of a strategic infrastructure for digitisation – a vision that demands top performance and efficiency.
Fibercorp by TIM, owned by American investment fund KKR and telecoms company Fastweb Italy, is moving towards the creation of an ultra-broadband network with fibre optic cable at its heart. FiberCorp is TIM’s fixed access business which includes its own FTTx (where FTTx stands for “FTTCab or FTTE”) operations and its FlashFiber joint venture with rival Fastweb. This summer TIM agreed to sell a 37.5% stake in the unit to private equity firm KKR for €1.8 billion and has also signed a deal with Tiscali, where Tiscali will invest in and use the network too.
The partnerships and deals proceed to the creation of a single access network for Italy. Core stakeholders are FiberCorp, merging with Open Fiber, the state-owned infrastructure company created by utility Enel and investment bank and TIM shareholder, Cassa Depositi e Prestiti (CDP). TIM will control more than 50% of the new body “AccessCo”, but will share governance.
FiberCorp is TIM’s new company and sees its secondary network (from the street cabinet to the customers’ homes) and the fibre network developed by FlashFiber (a TIM and Fastweb company) converge. FiberCorp has already taken the first steps to build its own network, closing and assigning the first of the two tenders for the supply of fibre optic cables to support FiberCorp’s FTTH (Fibre to the Home) cabling plan.
