In December 2019, the European Commission presented the European Green Deal with the ambition of making Europe the first climate-neutral continent by 2050, boosting the economy, improving people's health and quality of life, caring for nature, and leaving no one behind.

Digitalisation will be at the core of this ambitious program and fibre is key to align the digital and sustainability agendas. As the most sustainable telecommunication infrastructure technology, full-fibre is a prerequisite to achieving the European Green Deal and making the European Union’s economy more sustainable.

The need to work collectively towards a more sustainable society has become a strategic objective of policy makers and the vast majority of private organisations alike. With this context in mind, the sustainability Working Group of the FTTH Council Europe has been created with two key objectives:

  • Promote full fibre as the most sustainable access network technology and enabler of multiple applications which can contribute to reducing the carbon footprint of our activities. Remote working and learning being the most obvious examples.
  • Support all stakeholders of the Fibre to the Home value chain in their efforts to make their respective activities more carbon neutral.

Insights from the Committee

 

 

Advancing Fibre Deployment and Network Resilience

The Deployment & Operations (D&O) Committee is actively progressing on two major initiatives: Fibre Deep – Passive Optical LAN (POLAN) Applications and Network Resilience & Maintenance, with both detailed technical whitepapers targeted for completion ahead of the FTTH Conference 2026 in London.

The first paper explores how Passive Optical LAN technologies can enhance fibre deployment, particularly in enterprise and campus environments. It will highlight the advantages of fibre—scalability, energy efficiency, and lower maintenance—and include comparisons with copper-based LANs, deployment models for different contexts, and case studies showcasing successful implementations.

The second whitepaper focuses on resilient, fault-tolerant fibre networks that are easier to maintain and operate over time. It will provide best practices for proactive maintenance and fault detection, explore the role of AI and automation in network monitoring, and outline design principles for resilience, including redundancy planning and security hardening against potential threats.

Together, these initiatives reinforce the D&O Committee’s commitment to supporting the industry with technical guidance and practical tools that advance efficient, secure, and future-proof fibre deployment across Europe.

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