21581 - SCTE Broadband August2022 COMPLETE v1

5 Vol. 44 No. 3 - September 2022 Issue scte news “Fibre is the cornerstone of a successful convergence strategy. The future of wireless….is wire.” Eric Festraets, President, FTTH Council Hot on the heels of the industry’s other big trade show was the slickly-presented Fibre To The Home Conference 2022, which took place for the first time in Vienna on May 23-25. The world’s largest fibre summit, with 3500 delegates from over 100 territories, it was well-organised, entertaining and well attended. You would not have guessed this was the first live FTTH in three years by the atmosphere in the halls and seminar rooms; there were few masks in evidence and a lot of enthusiastic hugging and back slapping after a few drinks. Clearly the industry is delighted to be back together again; and the delegates threw themselves into the seminars (standing room only a lot of the time), exhibition and party with fervour. “You can’t beat meeting in person” was a refrain heard constantly. The atmosphere was warm and friendly, though feet were starting to ache by the third day; two years of home-working means delegates will need to put in a few hours to become match-fit for the next big show: IBC. The exhibition hall was a mass of impressive and creatively executed stands, buzzing with demos, flat screens and merchandise. All the usual suspects were there; impressive contributions from the likes of Prysmian, CommScope, STL and ZTL, as well as smaller but no less busy stands from our friends at VIAVI, OpenVault and Iskratel. Iskratel in particular read the room with their inspired beer tap, reminding visitors that ‘Yoghurt won’t help you – start the day right’ was a hit. The panel sessions were lively, constant and well attended; in many cases standing room only at the back. Eric Festraets, President of the FTTH Council Europe, was warm and effusive welcoming the delegates, encouraging the audience to wave their fibre optic wands found on our seats to ‘produce some compelling social media content’. It did. He reminded us that “after two years of the Covid pandemic where we could only meet virtually, and amid a very challenging economical and geo-political context, nowadays in Europe our industry has demonstrated its vital importance for the resilience of our societies and for our capacity to prepare our future prosperity.” The annual FTTH Awards also recognised stellar achievement across the industry in three categories. The UK’s altnet CityFibre came home with the Operator Award (and you can read all about their achievements on page 32), Jacek Wisniewski, CEO of Polish internet provider NEXERA won the Individual Award and Alex Goldblum, CEO of Eurofiber was awarded the prestigious Charles Kao Award. Fibre to the Home Conference, Vienna 2022 For more information, see https://ftthconference.eu/