Next-generation drives network development

VILNIUS - The number of customers using the fiber-optic Internet access services provided by TEO LT, the largest provider of integrated telecommunication, IT and TV services in Lithuania, in 2010 increased by approximately 65 percent and at the end of December exceeded 100,000 persons, reports ERR. According to Darius Didzgalvis, the Chief Technology Officer and Deputy General Manager of TEO, the fast growth in the number of fiber-optic/FTTH Internet users is due to the possibilities provided by this technology and the rapid development of the next-generation network.

“The FTTH network provides opportunities not only to browse the Internet at ultra-fast speeds, but also to watch HDTV or make telephone calls simultaneously,” Didzgalvis said.
FTTH Internet services provided by TEO, the company which has developed the most extensive telecommunications network in Lithuania, are available for use to about half of the country’s population - 570,000 households.

Next-generation services are being developed at the fastest rate in the country’s biggest cities; they are available for use to approximately 86 percent of residents of Vilnius, 95 percent of the residents of Klaipeda, 75 percent of the residents of Kaunas, more than half of Panevezys and Siauliai residents.
It is planned that this year TEO investments in the FTTH network, which is being expanded in fifty cities of Lithuania, will amount to more than 70 million litas (20.2 million euros). Total investments in the next-generation network will by the end of 2011 exceed 325 million litas.

According to the data released by the FTTH Council Europe, Lithuania is the country which is deploying fiber-optic Internet technologies at the fastest rate in Europe. In the middle of 2010, fiber-optic Internet access was used by more than 21 percent of households in the country - almost twice as much as in Sweden, Norway and Slovenia, which, according to the published rating, take positions from 2 to 4, respectively.

The next-generation fiber-optic network is characterized by the potential to transmit data at very high speeds. At present, the speed of the Internet services currently provided by TEO to its customers is 200 Mbps (Megabits per second). In the future, the company’s fiber-optic access will enable providing services at the speed of several gigabites per second.
Many of TEO FTTH Internet users - approximately 88,000 - currently use the FTTH (Fiber-to-the-home) technology, about 12,000 - FTTB (Fiber-to-the-building). At the end of 2010, the total number of TEO Internet service users reached nearly 346,000.