FROM THE INDUSTRY
With your background, effecting regulatory change is certainly an achievable aim. I’ve worked in this area for a very long time. I was among the first employees of the Italian Regulatory Agency. I worked closely with Roberto Viola, Director General of DG Connect at the European Commission. Roberto has always focused on market growth, more than on generally regulatory issues, which is more my area. Regulation works when it creates the right incentives for the market. At the end of your 12 months, what are you hoping to have achieved? This year my main objective is to try to have a copper switch off in the new regulatory framework, in the Digital Networks Act, which is being drafted now. That’s the main objective because having a clear direction towards copper switch-off and a set date in mind is important for the entire market. Secondly, by the end of the mandate I’d like to have completed the analysis on the relevance of audiovisual services for fibre take up. A few cable operators are using FTTH networks as upgrades, but this should now be the direction of travel for all cable operators. Free to air television will move away from terrestrial frequencies as a consequence of WRC decision and we have to understand if transmission over FTTH may become a viable alternative for broadcasters. What do you think needs to happen across the supply chain to ensure quality is maintained while all this takes place?
You need quality guarantees with audiovisual. FTTH access networks are excellent, plenty of bandwidth, but we need much more resilience at the transport, cloud and data centres end of the network which supports the transmission and access to services. As a council, we should support whatever grants quality and resilience at that level, because there are services you want continuously provided without interruption problems. It’s a critical piece of the jigsaw. It’s not just about growth is it. There is an awful lot to do over the next 12 months. That’s why it’s a board activity, not a single- person activity. If next year I remain as president or someone else succeeds me, the programme must remain the same. It’s a multi-year programme. Year one - we build the foundation of an activity and over the next two, three years we develop it. Is there anything you’d like to tell the readers of the Broadband Journal? Let’s say that the Council activity has brought a lot of support to fibre development and diffusion. Today we are a credible stakeholder, which takes into consideration the interests of the whole industry, aiming at increasing both the market value of fibre and the overall competitiveness of our economies. To be even more successful we are ready to welcome new members interested in joining forces to develop vertical markets and to put fibre at the centre of the economic cycle.
www.ftthcouncil.eu
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SEPTEMBER 2025 Volume 47 No.3
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