Prysmian Group, a world leader in the energy and telecommunications cabling systems industry, supports the need to create synergies between these two areas as a solution to the global technological challenges of the future. This was the main conclusion of the presentations made by the company's representatives at the conference "Network Convergence: Europe in the era of new connectivity solutions", which took place recently in Bucharest.
More than 30 European and international telecom experts attended the event, organised in partnership with the Ministry of Communications and Information Society (MCSI) and the National Institute for Research and Development in Informatics (ICI).
"Prysmian Group, with its 112 factories, 25 R&D centers and more than 30,000 employees in 52 countries, believes in closer collaboration in the near future between the already strongly interdependent telecom and energy areas. Romania is very well positioned to capitalise on this global trend as Slatina is home to the largest fibre optic cable plant in Europe and worldwide within the Prysmian Group", said Thomas Becker, Telecom Solutions Director CEE, Prysmian Group.
Jan Schindler, Global Market Intelligence Manager at Prysmian Group, shared European models in network convergence with case studies from Germany and showed the viability and sustainability of these projects from an economic point of view, the funding framework offered by local and national authorities and valuable lessons for the future.
Cristian Gheorghe, Telecom Solutions Sales Director Danubian, Prysmian Group, underlined that "after a total investment of more than 90 million euros and more than 15,000 hours of training for the nearly 1000 highly qualified employees, Prysmian Group's Slatina plant has become a European centre of excellence and innovation and a world-class technology centre. The hybrid cable developed in Slatina is a natural consequence of the high performance of Romanian researchers". Mr Gheorghe presented the opportunities for network convergence in Romania, in the context of a specific market and regulatory framework, as well as potential technical challenges.
At the end of the event, Prof. dr. eng. Gabriel Neagu, Scientific Director at ICI, and Dr. Carmen-Elena Cîrnu, Vice-President of the Scientific Council, President of the Cyber Security and Critical Infrastructure Department, presented the challenges and risks of disruptive innovations, as well as examples of successful projects carried out by the Institute in the field of disaster management, with applications in the aerospace area.