The 11th edition of Fibre to the Home (FTTH) Council Middle East and North Africa Conference will take place this year in Cairo on October 20th. The three-day event will bring together 12 international companies covering the FTTH, IT, and communications fields across the Middle East and North Africa. An exhibition will be held on the sidelines of the conference to display the latest inventions in FTTH, 5G, IoT industries. Under the rubric “Building the Digital Future”, the conference will demonstrate national strategic milestones for adopting digital transformation across the MENA region and highlight the importance of laying the foundation by building a solid technological infrastructure. It will also shed the light on the vital role of FTTH and showcase the success stories of the operators' business models in the MENA region to ensure sustainable digital economy, improve the life of civilians, develop digital services, and establish smart connected cities. A number of senior analysts from Egypt and the MENA region will discuss national broadband networks policies and increase the effectiveness of communication infrastructure investments and financing FTTH for being the groundwork for sustainable digital infrastructure. They will also explore ways to invest more in the fibre industry to support telecommunications networks and the deployment of 5G technology as a vital direction for the development of national economies through the implementation of super-fast fibre networks across the region. "Over the last year, FTTH Council MENA has been focusing on encouraging the adoption of fibre as the preferred medium of choice across multiples types of applications including 5G, wireless applications, and smart cities,” said Juan Colina, President of FTTH Council MENA. Holding this year's event in Cairo reflects the council's growing interest in transforming Egyptian cities into smart ones, Colina added. The council is keen on offering the global experiences of adopting fibre optic services along with the new opportunities, introducing business and operational models to serve the goals of the digital transformation adopted by the Egyptian state at the present time, he said. Moreover, the FTTH Council MENA will reveal a recent study on Egypt and present its results during the third day of the conference. According to the Council's studies, full FTTH solutions represent a small part of the total subscriptions by September 2019, which is inconsistent to a country with nearly 7 million broadband subscribers. From the last survey conducted by the FTTH Council MENA, the statistics indicated that 94.3% of the UAE has FTTH coverage, making it the highest penetration of optical fibre in access networks globally. Saudi Arabia is significantly investing in FTTH too. With the impending roll out of 5G in these two markets, a key focus is on getting the FTTH infrastructure ready, since it will be a requirement for the deployment of 5G networks. In its new edition in Cairo, the conference will be sponsored by 12 major international companies. This year Corning Inc. is participating as a Platinum Sponsor, while Sterlite Tech is a Gold Sponsor. More than 25 speakers and participants from more than 30 countries will attend the event. Aside from the conference, the FTTH Council MENA Exhibition will provide participants with an appropriate networking platform, allowing them to connect with companies that showcase the latest technologies. The pre-conference proceedings, taking place on 20 October, will feature several workshops, covering the planning, design and implementation of FTTH networks, providing the conference participants a guide of appropriate fibre plans to educate attendees about the successful implementation of infrastructure.
