Fibre Optic Valley is a cluster of ICT communities and educational institutes developing cutting edge applications using fibre optic technologies and telecommunications. Business Development Manager Jeanette Waax talks with Telecoms IQ to explain some of her interesting insight ahead of her presentation.

1. FTTx Summit 2011
Jeanette Waax, business development manager, Fibre Optic Valley
Fibre Optic Valley is a cluster of ICT communities and
educational institutes developing cutting edge applications using
fibre optic technologies and telecommunications. Jeanette talks
with Telecoms IQ to explain some of her interesting insight
ahead of her presentation.
Telecoms IQ: Hello and welcome to this podcast by Telecoms IQ for the FTTx conference
taking place from April11th to the 14th in London. The event will help you to understand the
business case, the models and the deployment strategies available for deploying fibre optic
networks. I am Richard de Silva. Joining me today is Jeanette Waax, the business
development manager for Sweden based community Fibre Optic Valley. The valley is a
cluster of ICT communities and educational institutes developing cutting edge applications
using fibre optic technologies and telecommunications. How are you, Jeannette? Are you
well?
JW: Yes thank you.
Telecoms IQ: Well, fantastic to have you on the line. I am curious to know, first of all: why
is Sweden so advanced in terms of optical fibre coverage despite being, from what I
understand, quite a sparsely populated country? There is a lot of open rural land between
your towns and cities. How have you managed to put most of the rest of us to shame?
JW: Yes, that is true, Sweden is sparsely populated and there are several factors that stand
behind the high fibre penetration in Sweden. One important factor is that we have publically
funded support projects to endorse the rollout of fibre and secure robust broadband
networks. Another thing is the extensive research and development within telecom.
Performed for many years by Swedish flagship companies such as Ericsson and Telia and in
Sweden, the first fibre optic networks were connected in the mid 80s so other players have
played an important role as well, such as universities and the research institute, to further
enhance technology development, for example, through the use of test networks for realistic
pilot studies. And third you can say, in Sweden a large number of the fibre optic networks
have been built by public bodies like town councils and formerly state owned companies.
Infrastructure has always been a priority in our country and Swedes were always early
adapters of new technology. Open networks that allow a wide range of service providers to
get access to end users, have also been of great importance for the fibre success.
Telecoms IQ 1

2. Telecoms IQ: Excellent. So an early start, a lot of public support, and innovation. Good to
hear. From what I understand, you’re currently on quite a big mission. Could you just
outline for us the aims for this community of yours, Fibre Optic Valley, and explain to us how
it operates?
JW: Fibre Optic Valley was founded in 2004 as an initiative from the local driving forces;
they saw the need for a new branch in the region, apart from traditional industry. And we are
based on a non profit association involving the community, academia and private companies
in a region with 500,000 inhabitants in mid-Sweden. Our main purpose is to connect
academia, private companies and public bodies in cooperative projects around fibre optics
and the broadband society arm. And that, of course, creates economic growth, more jobs
and we are the broker of contacts and the coordinator of competence in our network. We
also support SME with business development, nationally and internationally, and we
establish co-operation with similar organisations around the world. Today we have 29 formal
member and partner companies in our network, including universities but, of course, a large
number of partners that we don’t have a formal agreement with. So I think that is the short
version.
Telecoms IQ: And is this effort to pool resources and knowledge not a hindrance to healthy
competition – is that a fair concern?
JW: I would not like to call it a concentration of resources; on the contrary it supports
competition and development since our independent role enables us to engage in any
innovative projects. And through this network, SMEs who could have difficulties competing
with larger players during start up get turns to grow and to reach new markets. The big
companies and universities, in their turn, get a channel to be an innovative SME they
otherwise could have missed. So I’d rather call it something other than concentrated or
closed.
Telecoms IQ: Okay. Can you tell us about any success stories that companies involved in
this community have experienced? Any practical examples you can give us?
JW: Yes, absolutely. I’d like to point out a company named Hawk International, which I will
tell you more about during my speech at the conference. A few years ago the founder of this
company felt he wanted to change his lifestyle and move out of the stressful Stockholm area
so he and his wife bought an old picturesque school house in a small village in mid Sweden.
The problem was that he is a professional film editor and to continue a successful career he
needed a solution for quick distribution of film materials to his fellows in Stockholm and other
places. And with four to five optics valley he created a web based platform for film
postproduction and the high speed fibre connection to his house was a crucial factor for the
birth of the platform. So now he is travelling around the world as a spokesman for this
innovative tool and even Hollywood has shown interest, so this is very exciting. Another
company named Radium has used the LAN facilities of Fibre Optic Valley to develop a new
speciality fibre which is unique in the world. We are also helping them with marketing
activities, for example trade shows and press releases, and they are gaining large attention
from both market and media. And even though being a start up company, they already have
orders for the unique fibre, from all over the world.
Telecoms IQ: Very interesting. It sounds like you have developed a model that could,
perhaps, be of use to companies and networks outside of Sweden. Can I ask you, is Fibre
Optic Valley collaborating itself with any other group or nation? Is there any outside
interest?
Telecoms IQ 2

3. JW: Yes, absolutely. I mean, this way of working in clusters is very common in Europe, and
yes we do. To mention a few, in Sweden, we cooperate with Sweden Broadband Alliance
and the Urban Network Association but outside Sweden we are an official associate pathway
to bring fibre to the whole [unclear] of Europe and we have strong links to the UK through the
Project One North East. Malta is another example where we have good contacts with the
communication authorities in SmartCity, Malta. And in Singapore, we are connected to the
IE Singapore and private corporations like Sigmatel and in Paris we cooperate with
CapDigital. We tend to do more and more international connections since big projects
normally are trans-national.
Telecoms IQ: It really is making an impact then. If we just take a step back for the moment
and look at potential short term and long term technological developments, Jeanette, is
optical fibre here to stay? And if so, is that down to the fact that it’s the best option for future
communications or simply because we are investing so heavily into it now that we really
don’t have a choice even if something else enters our technological evolution?
JW: No, optical fibre is definitely here to stay. Without a strong fibre optic backbone,
today’s mobile solutions would not have existed. Fibre optics and the mobile [unclear] live in
symbiosis. With traffic volumes are exploding, increasing ten times every fourth year, but of
course even optical fibre is developing. One example is the need for cheaper solutions in
separate buildings. Plastic optical fibre is being used inside the house and the laser is
replaced by LED. An increase in traffic volume demands new ways of taking care of the
optical centres of the networks. Therefore the [unclear] development of optical switches is
going on. Optical fibre is used more and more in other areas in communication. Fibre plays
an important role in, for example, medical applications and the large construction projects
but to summarise, yes, optical fibre is definitely here to stay.
Telecoms IQ: Good news. We are hoping to learn a lot from you at the presentation, a little
bit more than what you are speaking about today. But are you, yourself, hoping to learn any
particular lessons from attending and just what are the lessons still to be learnt, from your
perspective?
JW: Yes. Well, my expectation for the event – I wish to highlight the use of fibre optics, the
content in the networks rather than pure technology. For me, the benefits for society are so
good and technology should serve mankind. At this event I hope to find new contacts who
want to be connected to our big network. And the lessons to be learnt – well, how can we
cooperate more efficiently in Europe to stop us lagging behind Asia in technology
development? And anyone with thoughts around this issue is welcome to address me at the
conference.
Telecoms IQ: Excellent, I am sure they will. Jeanette, thank you very much indeed for your
time. As I say, we do look forward to hearing more from you in just a few months and in the
meantime good luck with your project.
JW: Thank you very much.
You can now register your attendance at FTTx Summit Europe. Email us at
enquire@iqpc.co.uk or call us on +44 (0) 20 7368 9300.
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4. IQPC
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