Following a highly successful 12 months, members of the FTTH Council Europe met at the General Assembly in Amsterdam on 28 and 29 March to set the course for the year 2012. Seven members of the Board were elected, and Karin Ahl was chosen to be President of the Board.
The Board thanked outgoing President Chris Holden, who steps down at the end of his maximum term as member of Board of Directors and President. Under his leadership, the FTTH Council Europe has become accepted as expert voice on high-speed broadband, and now regularly contributes to policy and regulatory groups at European level.
Karin Ahl has been an active member of the FTTH Council Europe since 2009, when she joined the new Business Committee and helped to launch the first ever FTTH Business Guide. As marketing director of Rala Infratech, a systems integrator specialising in optical fibre networks, Karin was able to bring real-world experience of FTTH project management and business development to the group. She became Chair of the Business Committee in 2011, and was also elected Board member and Treasurer of the FTTH Council Europe in the same year.
“Fibre to the home is future proof, and everybody agrees that it is the end game for broadband access,” she said. “With our new ‘World of Applications’ initiative we will show the proof that FTTH enables and enhances interesting services and applications. This will address end consumers as well as policy makers to create a ‘pull’ for fibre connections from the market.”
“The ‘Why fibre?’ and ‘How fibre?’ strategy that we adopted last year has been extremely successful; therefore our strategy in 2012 will keep this overall approach while also broadening the scope of our activities,” explained Hartwig Tauber, Director General of the FTTH Council Europe. “The financing topic is of particular importance in 2012 as the EU budget for the period 2014-2020 is being prepared, and it is necessary to ensure that sufficient funds are allocated to fibre roll outs.”
The FTTH Council Europe will continue to address the “push” and “pull” forces in the FTTH market. Educating end users is vital: they will only demand fibre connections if they understand the benefits. The Council also plans to carry on working with entertainment providers and application developers to create and demonstrate services that push the market towards higher-speed networks.
The Board of Directors consists of the following nine members:
- Karin Ahl, Rala Infratech, Sweden – President of the Board
- Matthias Nass, ECI, Germany – Treasurer
- Eric Festraets, Alcatel-Lucent, Belgium
- Carlos Barroqueiro, CBE, Portugal
- Pastora Valero, Cisco Systems, Belgium
- Pär Cedergren, Ericsson AB, Sweden
- Gerlas van den Hoven, Genexis, The Netherlands
- Paul Schwartz, ICOTERA, Denmark
- Edgar Aker, Prysmian Group, The Netherlands
The Working Committee Chairs are:
- Joeri Van Bogaert, Belgium, Chair of the Business Committee
- Wolfgang Fischer, Germany, Chair of the Deployment & Operations Committee
- Jan Schindler, The Netherlands, Chair of the Market Intelligence Committee
- Chris Holden, United Kingdom, Chair of the Policy & Regulation Experts Group
- Ana Pesovic, Belgium, Chair of the World of Applications Committee
The annual report 2011-2012, containing all the latest findings of the FTTH Council Europe’s Working Committees, was unveiled at the General Assembly.
