The FTTH Council Europe initiated its first investors’ road show to present the advantages and development potential of fibre access to an investor audience.
Throughout the day, several Frankfurt-based investment companies such as Frankfurt Trust, COMINVEST, Union Investment, DWS Investment and DEKA Investment had one-on-one meetings with FTTH Council Europe representatives Hartwig Tauber, Director General, and Karel Helsen, President. The meetings were organised by WestLB, a major European commercial bank with investment banking activities, and focused on the market development of FTTH in Europe and the business case for fibre roll-out. They were joined by Jan Davids, Director of Wholesales of Reggefiber, a major FTTH operator in The Netherlands, who was invited by the Council to share his practical experiences of several years’ successful FTTH deployment.

The investors’ feedback was extremely positive as they acknowledged that fibre access could herald the next wave of growth in high technology telecommunications. Many of them agreed that investing in FTTH deployment is a low risk, secure long-term investment.

Considering the economic, environmental and social impact of FTTH and its current development potential, investors expressed concern that some telecom operators may be missing the turning point. They believe that further delay in investing in FTTH technology could lead to loss of market share. These concerns were specifically raised about some incumbent operators that are still very hesitant to decide to go for FTTH networks while other market players continue to roll out fibre and connect an increasing number of consumers to their truly next generation networks.

“This road show was an important step forward to convince the investors community that the best point in time to invest in fibre is today”, says Karel Helsen, President of the FTTH Council Europe, “It is a good sign that the investors see FTTH deployments as secure long-term investments. Now that investment experts have accepted that FTTH represents the only future-proof wired broadband solution while all kinds of new wireless technologies are seen as important but complementary offerings, we feel strongly supported in our continuous efforts towards FTTH mass roll-out.”

Based on the feedback and requests of the participating investors, the FTTH Council Europe plans to organise another similar information tour again next year.

The long awaited Google venture capital fund, Google Ventures, is now open for business. The Fund is led by managing partners Bill Maris and Rich Miner.

The fund’s FAQ says they’ll invest in just about any type of startup (”consumer Internet, software, hardware, clean-tech, bio-tech, health care and others”) and they’re willing to invest just about any amount you might need (”from seed funding to tens of millions of dollars, depending on the stage of the opportunity and the company’s need for capital”). It’s not exactly what you’d call a tight investment focus, but hey, it’s not like they need to worry about keeping limited partners happy so they can raise the next fund.

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