Prysmian Group continues to sustain development of broadband networks,
and maintains its commitment to innovation and competing in the optical fibre
sector worldwide with the inauguration of a newly expanded optical fibre
production facility in Sorocaba, São Paulo.

 As part of a five year plan which ends in 2016, Prysmian is investing
more than €100m in its telecom R&D activities and optical fibre plants
worldwide, with the aim of increasing competitiveness of fibre products and
enhancing production capacity in order to match demand from the market.

 The Brazilian project is part of this ongoing global scheme which will
improve the performance of the Group’s optical products and manufacturing
processes, along with other excellence centres in the USA, France, Italy and
the Netherlands.

 The first phase of the investment plan for the Soracaba plant – now
completed – increased the local production capacity to meet local market needs
of 4.5m km of fibre preforms per year.

 The ongoing second phase of the plan aims to upgrade manufacturing
processes in order to provide the South American market with the most advanced
fibre solutions and also further increase capacity if market demand requires
it.

 “The quality of the passive elements of an optical infrastructure is
absolutely key to guarantee the sustainability of the telecom service and also
to optimize the total cost of ownership of the network,” said Philippe
Vanhille, Executive Vice President, Telecom at Prysmian Group. “The closer the fibre gets to the premises, the more
passive components quality becomes critical to avoid service disruptions and
high cost of ownership. We consistently
keep on investing in optical innovation, in order to permanently improve the
performance of our products and processes. Our mission is to provide the market with the best solutions, creating
concrete value for our customers, both in Brazil and globally.”

 Prysmian provides the market with the benefit of 40 years of optical
fibre R&D, fully owned optical technology and ever-growing experience
across six continents. The Group is
constantly working to develop new technologies in wiring and connectivity to
provide the best, most up-to-date customer experience. Recent developments have
included the Retractanet and VertiCasa retractable solutions for indoor and
outdoor installation, and Flextube™ 1728fo
cable, the largest Flextube™ cable available with the highest fibre density of
any high fibre count cable deployed in the world, (4.16f/mm²),
recently installed in Australia.