APRIL 24, 2009 -- Croatian service provider T-Hrvatski Telekom has begun accelerating expansion of broadband Internet access by investing into further development of optical infrastructure in order to bring optical fiber to customers' homes and buildings, thus ensuring higher access speeds, higher data transmission capacity, and better service stability. With implementation of infrastructure based on FTTH/FTTB (fiber-to-the-building) technologies, T-HT plans to ensure even better quality of existing services and open possibilities for development of new, more sophisticated and technically demanding services.
Optical network services are used at present by some 200 test customers in four major Croatian cities, testing VoIP, ADSL, and IPTV service. According to the plans, approximately 50,000 customers should be connected to optical network, whether through FTTH or FTTB, by the end of 2009.
T-HT plans to invest more than 1 billion kunas (approximately US$176.2 million) into development of fixed infrastructure in 2009, primarily in expansion of optical access networks. Annual investments of T-HT into the modernization of fixed and mobile networks represent 95% of all investments on the Croatian telecom market. T-HT plans further investments into access networks with the aim to migrate to a unique IP platform.
"Construction of 21st century telecommunications infrastructure will bring the Croatian society a step closer to global digital trends. T-HT has a particular responsibility in providing as many customers as possible with broadband access, but we also feel the same responsibility towards our shareholders. Given the significance and volume of investments, we expect that the regulatory framework will encourage further investments into new generation networks," says Ivica Mudrinić, president of the management board of T-HT.
T-Com's MAXadsl has so far attracted more than 470,000 customers; the goal of T-HT is to provide technical conditions for broadband access for 1 million customers by the end of 2009.
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