Prysmian Group Wins $38M Rural Contract From Mexican Government

Prysmian Group will design, supply and install cable for a government-owned Mexican company in an $38-million initiative designed to connect remote regions of the country with high-speed broadband.

This is at least the second provider in two separate rural-focused projects Mexico's government has announced within four weeks. In mid-December, Viasat began offering broadband speeds of up to 50Mbit/s. The provider is expanding its presence in the country, having already deployed its Community Wi-Fi hotspot service via satellite-enabled WiFi, and is working with the Mexican government and local partners of "Internet para Todos" (Internet for All), which connects government buildings, clinics and schools to the Internet using Viasat's satellites.

In the more recent program, which is capable of delivering much higher speeds to subscribers, Comisión Federal de Electricidad (CFE) (Federal Commission of Electricity) selected Prysmian for its Proyecto de Conectividad Fibra Óptica Red Eléctrica Inteligente REI (Optical Fiber Connectivity Project Smart Electric Network). Prysmian will provide at least 9,800 kilometers (6,089 miles) of optical ground wire (OPGW) and 5,100 km (3,169 miles) of all-dielectric self-supporting (ADSS) cables.

Prysmian will produce the OPGW cables in Spain and the ADSS cables in Mexico, the company said in a release.

As part of its application process and deployment strategy, Prysmian generated an international tender including both local and international partners. Leveraging its status as a global organization with headquarters in Milan, Prysmian worked with its local sales teams in Mexico, worldwide operations groups and specialized divisions including legal and procurement, said Juan Mogollon, CEO LatAm at Prysmian.

For years, Prysmian has heavily invested in Mexico, added Philippe Vanhille, EVP of Telecom Business at Prysmian.

"Mexico and Central America offer considerable scope for development in all telecom sectors in the near future, with broadband Internet subscribers constantly growing," said Vanhille, in a statement. "The investments we made in this area in the past few years have been key to helping Prysmian be ready to meet the subsequent increase in market demand and support its customers in the region."

Being able to manufacture cable in multiple locations worldwide is one ingredient in Prysmian's success, Vanhille told Broadband World News in a late-2019 interview. Operators want more customization and more performance from their fiber investments, and having production close by is a major differentiator, he noted. Not only can Prysmian more easily make cables exactly meet customers' specs, but dispersed production results in less disruption and faster time-to-market for operators and their end-customers.

"Cables are meant to last over 20 years, and cope with an ever-increasing and demanding traffic in terms of speed, latency and optical spectrum usage," Vanhille said. "Cables represent 10% to 12% of a typical infrastructure investment but, if well chosen, can generate very significant value by reducing both the capex and opex of our customers. With the increase of the technical exigence of active telecom systems, the quality of cables is more and more critical to the performance of the networks and to the quality of service of our customers."

Related posts:

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• Prysmian Group Ties Ribbon Around US-Made 6912 Fiber MassLink Cable
• BBWN Bites: Orange to Wrap More of France in Fiber
• HughesNet Crosses Into Mexico
• Grupo Televisa Renews & Extends Intelsat's Satellite Contract

— Alison Diana, Editor, Broadband World News