Huawei partners with Safaricom to roll out FTTH
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Huawei partners with Safaricom to roll out FTTH

Huawei has announced that it is working with Kenya’s Safaricom to deploy a fibre-to-the-home network.

Using Huawei’s end-to-end solution, roll outs can be done quickly and network capabilities can be expanded to include new home broadband services, said the company.

Thibuad Rerolle, Safaricom's director, said, "By using Huawei's E2E FTTH solution, we can quickly build the FTTH network. We are keen to broaden the development space for new fixed broadband services."

Kenya’s fixed broadband penetration is below 1%, meaning the demand is ever greater for businesses and enterprises. Roadblocks faced by the company in the implementation of FTTH, includes scattered user distribution, high network construction costs, and low early phase service provisioning rates and revenues.

To speed up network construction, Safaricom intends on using existing metropolitan area network optical cables and aerial cables. And by creating synergies of fixed broadband optical distribution networks and mobile backhaul networks, it can deploy mini optical line terminals and wireless base stations in the same cabinet, it can greatly reduce construction costs. 

In addition, Huawei's lightweight mini operations support system helps Safaricom to reduce the system integration period and deployment can be completed in as little as three months, down from what was 18 months.

Jeff Wang, president of Huawei's access network product line, said: "Emerging markets place strong demands on FTTH network services. The top challenge that operators face is shortening the ROI period. To solve this challenge, Huawei released the E2E FTTH solution. It features precise investment, fast network construction, quick service provisioning, and efficient O&M, enabling operators to greatly shorten the ROI period and achieve business success."

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