Later this month in Auckland, New Zealand plays host to one of the most prestigious telecommunications conferences ever staged in the country, when the Fibre to the Home (FTTH) Council stages its conference and exhibition at the Langham Hotel, May 19-21.

The event, entitled ‘Building the Economies of the Future’ will debate the issues around FTTH technology and super-fast broadband delivery. The keynotes represent a real who’s who of the industry and they include New Zealand’s minister for communication and information technology Hon. Amy Adams, Crown Fibre Holdings chief executive Graham Mitchell, NBN Co Australia chief executive and director Mike Quigley, Nucleus Connect Singapore chief executive David Storrie, and China Unicom deputy chief engineer Dr Xiong Yan Tang.

Other major organisations represented with speakers include the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore, APCO Australia, BBNL of India, JDSU, Cambium Networks, Calix, Cisco, Telekom Malaysia, Samsung and NTT.

Visitors to the event will be able to share experiences of FTTH deployment around the world, including special sessions on e-health, rural applications, entertainment and MDU innovations. There is also a series of pre-conference workshops.

“This year’s conference and exhibition – our eighth to date – looks set to be a real landmark event and anyone connected with the industry should have it very high on their agenda,” says FTTH Council Asia Pacific chairman Fouad (Frank) Jaffer.

“The sheer world class quality of the speakers, the workshops and areas of debate will give New Zealand an event of the highest calibre and this is only backed by major sponsorships and our best ever exhibition packed with the latest innovations from companies across the world.”

Fouad adds that the conference will conclude with a site tour allowing delegates to visit an FTTH deployment which is part of New Zealand’s major investment in ultra-fast broadband.

“With the New Zealand government contributing $1.35 billion to accelerate the take-up of ultra-fast broadband across the country, as well as significant amounts of private co-investment by the Government’s partners, we are seeing a huge undertaking and one of great significance to the industry globally,” Fouad adds.

The major Diamond Sponsor for the event is TE Connectivity. Other major sponsors include Cisco, Fujikura, JDSU, Chorus, Ericsson, Preformed Line Products, Marias-Lucas, Calix and INNO Instrument.

Visitor and exhibitor interest is already high, with an expectation of unprecedented access to leading industry figures and organisations.

“We have major plans and see significant opportunities for fixed wireless broadband across New Zealand, so the FTTH Asia Pacific event was clearly a ‘must attend’ conference for us,” says Cambium Networks’ EMEA and Asia Pacific marketing manager Simon Smallbone.

“We have been really impressed by what is becoming a truly world class gathering and we welcome this opportunity to showcase our solutions.”

His views were backed by US access giant Calix.

“The FTTH Asia Pacific event has emerged as a showcase event for fiber access success stories in the region, presenting a great opportunity to both share and learn,” says Calix Australia and New Zealand sales director Craig Stephens.

“With a variety of powerful fiber deployment successes in the region, as well as vast experience from global markets, we are looking forward to both sharing our experiences as well as learning from regional best practices.”