The European Parliament and Council have reached a political agreement to update the European Electronic Communications Code. The proposed new version proposed is designed to boost investments in high capacity networks across the EU, including in remote and rural areas.

SEATTLE, WASHINGTON – GigabitNow, a division of IsoFusion, has received an equity investment in IsoFusion from Benaroya Companies.  The venture capital firm will also provide $14 million in project financing capital, which will allow GigabitNow to expand its operations. 

GigabitNow's new in-house financing capabilities will allow it to expedite its network construction financing for private communities and municipalities in the U.S. including the initial costs of network development.

Open Fiber is extending its collaboration with Vodafone for the development in Italy of ultra-wideband connectivity services for fibre to the home (FTTH).

The agreement, which is already active in around two million households and businesses across 13 cities has been expanded to an additional 258 cities as part of the next wave of the fast broadband network rollout. This includes Clusters A and B - home to around 60% of the Italian population.

Belgian telecommunications operator, Proximus has chosen the Viavi ONMSi optical network monitoring system to test and monitor its growing fibre to the home (FTTH) network at the build-out stage, in order to help maintain reliability.

UK Chancellor Philip Hammond has announced the roll out of the Nationwide Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme (GBVS), which is to provide vouchers worth up to £3000 for a small or medium sized business or £500 to residents to help with the costs of connecting to full fibre broadband.

CityFibre has filed for a judicial review of the UK’s advertising watchdog, the Advertising Standards Authority’s (ASA), 2017 ruling, which approved the continued use of the term ‘fibre’ to describe services delivered over copper-based networks.

The builder, owner, and operator of fibre-optic infrastructure argues that the research and logic that led to the ASA’s decision was fundamentally flawed and that the watchdog has not only permitted, but also encouraged internet service providers to continue to mislead consumers.

UK communications regulator, Ofcom has published a set of measures that aim to increase investment in full fibre broadband networks and lower the upfront building costs. The draft has been submitted to the European Commission for comment, and a final statement is due to be published in March 2018.

Aberdeen is set to become Scotland's first gigabit-speed fibre broadband city following an extended partnership between Vodafone and CityFibre to introduce a gigabit-capable full fibre broadband network under the two companies’ fibre to the premises (FTTP) programme. CityFibre will invest at least £40 million of private funds in the city-wide roll-out, after which nearly every home and business will be able to access to gigabit-speed broadband.

The FTTH Council Europe has released the findings of its new study – carried out by WIK – on the socio-economic benefits of fibre, which explores whether fibre-based connectivity is transforming and enhancing the way we live, do business and interact.

The latest figures of the FTTH Market Panorama - prepared by IDATE for the FTTH Council Europe - were released at the FTTH 2018 conference in Valencia.

The figures demonstrate that the number of fibre to the home (FTTH) and fibre to the building (FTTB) subscribers in Europe has increased, with more than 5.1 million FTTH/B subscribers in the EU39 by the end of September 2017 – a 20.4 per cent rise on September 2016.