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

 

 

Panel 3 - Building Resilient FTTH Networks

As fibre networks increasingly underpin Europe’s digital economy, ensuring their resilience has become a strategic priority. FTTH infrastructure now supports essential services, critical communications, and growing digital demand, making network reliability and security more important than ever.

This panel brings together leading industry experts to examine how operators and infrastructure providers can strengthen the resilience of fibre networks in an evolving risk landscape. Discussions will address challenges ranging from physical infrastructure protection and climate-related risks to operational preparedness and cybersecurity.

Featuring Neill Gallagher (Director, Copenhagen Economics), Jaakko Wallenius (VP Resilience and Defense, Elisa), Neil McRae (CTIO, CityFibre), Christian Laque (CTO, A1 Austria), and Arnaud Van Troeyen (CEO, Altitude Infra), the session will explore practical approaches to building robust, future-ready FTTH networks.

The panel will also consider how resilience strategies must evolve as fibre infrastructure becomes increasingly critical to supporting AI-driven demand, data centre expansion, and Europe’s broader digital transformation.


Speakers:

  • Christian Laqué - CTO at A1 Austria
  • Jaakko Wallenius - Vice President, Resilience and Defense at Elisa
  • Katja Kmet Vrcko - Co-Chair Cybersecurity & Resilience Working Group at AKOS
  • Loic Mahut - International Business Director at Altitude Infra
  • Neil McRae - Chief Information & Technology Officer at CityFibre
  • Moderated by Neil Gallager - Director at Copenhagen Economics

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