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