Prysmian rolling out ultradense cable for TPG

Prysmian Group has announced it has begun rolling out an ultradense single cable solution in Melbourne for Australian telco TPG.

The company said TPG sought the highest fibre count cable possible for a particular application. Using its Flextube technology, Prysmian has now manufactured a cable with a capacity of 2112 fibres.

“It is not only the highest fibre count cable ever manufactured by Prysmian but it also exhibits the world’s highest fibre density,” said Jack Clements, technical sales manager at Prysmian Australia.

“The 2112 fibres are contained within a single sheath 24 mm in diameter, making it the highest density optical cable solution in the world, with a record-breaking 4.7 fibres/mm². The cable was designed to be slim enough to fit inside a 32 mm subduct (with an internal diameter of just 28 mm), fully maximising the available space.”

A 1.8 km section of the 2112F cable was deployed in Melbourne’s CBD on 8 April and installed within a subduct of 28 mm internal diameter.

The cable was spliced at both ends using Prysmian’s high-capacity joint enclosures. The joints are able to store up to 2688 fibre splices and are modular in design, able to be scaled up and down.

TPG is one of the first companies in Australia to trial Prysmian’s Flextube product, which is designed to be extremely compact, lightweight and flexible, and much faster to install.

“Being able to install over 2000 fibres in one go brings us major advantages in terms of installation costs per fibre and utilisation of our infrastructure. It also helps us secure capacity in high-demand areas, helping us to futureproof our fibre network,” said Liz Goyeneche, network design and planning manager at TPG Telecom.

Prysmian also revealed last week its Sydney facility will locally manufacture its FlexTube line for the first time in Australia.