VolkerWessels Telecom surpasses 1 million Homes Passed
The Netherlands is rapidly becoming a fibre optic country. VolkerWessels Telecom (VWT) is making an important contribution to this. And that is reflected in the figures. The counter of the number of Homes Passed, or households that VWT has provided with a fibre optic connection, has now passed the one million mark. This makes VWT the first contractor to break through this number.
The first 'Fiber to the Home' (FttH) network which VolkerWessels Telecom started in 2004-2005, was in the village of Nuenen (near Eindhoven). Commissioned by the Ons Net Nuenen cooperative and VolkerWessels, VWT laid fibre optic cable to 7,800 homes. In the years that followed, VWT rolled out fibre optic cable in dozens of towns and villages, mainly for client Reggefiber and in the Salland region for client CIF. Reggefiber was fully incorporated into KPN in 2014. The pace of fibre optic installation subsequently slowed sharply due to falling investments in FttH. The turnaround took place at the end of 2018 when KPN breathed new life into the rollout of FttH.
The pace of fibre deployment has now returned to its previous level. Under the banner of 'Fiber to the X' (FttX), VWT is working for various clients at multiple locations across the country. 2021 has certainly got off to a good start. Over the past few weeks, more than 30,000 households have been added with fibre to the front door.
"More than 1 million Homes Passed is a wonderful milestone for VolkerWessels Telecom," says Arjan ten Hove, Managing Director at VWT. "Thanks to the efforts of our people, in cooperation with our subcontractors, we have been able to glaze street after street at a rapid pace since 2018. We are also fully committed to FttX for the coming years. We have sufficient capacity and resources in house to help our clients achieve their fibre optic targets. So on to the 2 million Homes Passed."
"We are currently working on around 50 fibre optic projects in the Netherlands. That requires quite a bit of organisational power and teamwork," adds Niels Kamphuis, director of FttX at VolkerWessels Telecom. "Thanks to the efforts of our experienced and hard-working people for the preparation and coordination of the projects and our trusted partners for the installation, the work is progressing smoothly. And we can all be proud of that!”