Iskratel expands into the UK market to deliver FTTH connectivity to underserved regions

Liverpool, UK, and Kranj, Slovenia, 22 March 2022 – Iskratel, a Slovenia-headquartered ICT provider, is intensifying its activities in Western Europe and is now offering its innovative Fibre-To-The-Home (FTTH) solutions from a newly opened branch in the UK.

As one of the major ICT players in the EU, Iskratel is already present in Western European countries such as Germany, Spain, France and Belgium. Alongside the UK, these countries have considerable potential for fibre-based broadband expansion and are expected to experience a 3- to 4-digit growth of FTTH deployments, especially in rural areas.

Iskratel’s UK Key Account Manager Simon Higgins, a sales professional with extensive experience and in-depth knowledge of the UK market will head up the regional branch and oversee operations. Higgins said: “We are excited to bring our complete end-to-end fibre access solutions to the UK, and the recent expansion in the city of Liverpool will bring added flexibility and regional support for operators to efficiently roll-out ultra-fast connectivity in underserved areas of the UK.”

In the UK, heavy investment in FTTH connectivity is promoted by its national high-speed broadband plan accompanied by financial support from the Government, local authorities, cooperatives and private sources. According to the UK Parliament, approximately 95% of UK premises have a superfast broadband connection available.

Well positioned to address the needs of the UK market with highly scalable XGS-PON/GPON OLTs and a range of ONTs, Iskratel has extensive expertise and experience in deploying open-access FTTH networks in rural and underserved areas. This includes successfully delivering GPON/XGS-PON connectivity as part of the Slovenian-Croatian RUNE (Rural Network) Project, and deploying a 10-gigabit fibre-optic network to thousands of households in Belgium in collaboration with the Ulysse Group.

Last year, Iskratel began its network expansion programme with Ukrtelecom, which aimed to connect more than one million people across Ukraine with fibre connectivity. Additionally, Iskratel also achieved the world’s highest GPON deployment, totalling more than 4,000 metres above sea level in Bolivia.

Higgins added: “As a leading European provider, Iskratel’s solutions are the perfect fit to meet the needs of Tier-2 operators with our expansive and customisable range of FTTH technology that includes OLTs, ONTs and passive equipment. With our Research and Development and manufacturing centres across Europe, Iskratel will help unlock future growth for operators across the UK.”