Italy-based Prysmian Group, a major supplier of cable systems to the energy and telecom industries, announced has been awarded a supply agreement by Verizon Communications to support its U.S. network expansion.
The three-year contract is valued at approximately $300 million and will include the supply of more than 17 million fibre km (10.6 million miles) of ribbon and loose tube cables. To support this contract, as well as demand from other carriers, Prysmian plans to make a significant investment through 2018 in its U.S.-based optical cable operation. Prysmian's telecom division has been qualified as a provider of fibre, optical cable and connectivity solutions to Verizon for over a decade.
Prysmian noted that Verizon is expanding its infrastructure based on a next-generation fibre platform designed to support the deployment of 5G services, as well as enhance 4G LTE and other broadband capacity.
Prysmian added that Verizon believes demand for next-generation PON (NGPON2) technology will extend well beyond 2020 as new technologies such as 5G and the IoT experience increasing adoption.
Prysmian has an established manufacturing base in the U.S. for optical fibre and cable for a range of applications, with three telecom production sites, including two for the production of optical cable and one for optical fibre.
- In April, Verizon announced a three-year minimum purchase agreement with Corning for the provision of fibre optic cable and associated hardware equipment to ensure coverage and capacity for its nationwide wireless broadband network. Under the agreement, Verizon is to purchase from Corning up to 20 million km (12.4 million miles) of optical fibre in each of the three years from 2018 to 2020, with a minimum purchase commitment of $1.05 billion.
