Budapest, Hungary 8th August 2012 – Decision-makers integral to Eastern European telecoms are set to debate the ever growing need for fibre networks to keep pace with increasing customer demand at FTTx Summit Eastern Europe in Budapest this September.

Speakers from some of the region’s leading operators, including: Telekom Srbija, Slovak Telekom, Makedonski Telekom, Telekom Slovenije, TeliaSonera and One Macedonia will come together to debate the business case for FTTx.

Peter Lunar, Senior Network Engineer at Telekom Slovenije, and one of the keynote speakers at FTTx Summit Eastern Europe says there are many challenges specific to the region.

“In Eastern Europe the average revenue per user is lower than in Western, but capital expenditure is on the same level and extremely high in rural areas.  Regulation is an issue too and it is hard to justify the business case for fibre where a good DSL network is available. At the summit I am looking forward to hearing about OPEX: information systems and processes,” said Lunar.   

FTTx Summit Europe will showcase the different success stories within the region.  Delegates will hear about Macedonia which saw the need for fibre deployment early on in order to aid in economic recovery and growth. Also Lithuania, which currently sits at the top of the FTTH Council’s European rankings for fibre deployment. Latvia will be a case in point where incumbent operator Lattelecom connected 357,485 homes, or 40% of all households in just under two years.

Georgina Hajdu, Divisional Director of Telecoms IQ responsible for the event, commented: “Investment in fibre deployment is dramatically increasing across the world and Eastern Europe’s booming broadband market has established its operators as some of the most active in the field, propelling the region to the forefront of fibre deployments worldwide. The speakers at FTTx Summit are some of the architects behind this success and therefore the event is set to be an enormous success for knowledge sharing and industry progression,” she said.

Last year’s event, Delivering High Speed Broadband, was the first successful event held in Prague in 2011. For further information, to register, attend or sponsor FTTx Summit Eastern Europe, please contact Samantha Aspinall at [email protected] or on +44 (0) 20 7368 9771.