Nexans: Modernising a mythical city

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At the beginning of 2018, the Athens Municipality launched its Digital Roadmap, a plan aimed at modernising internet infrastructure of the city with over 3,000 years of history. In the framework of this programme, the capital of Greece intends to digitalise its administration and build state-of-the-art communications infrastructure, including in some of its most important historical buildings. In order to upgrade the network of the City Hall, Nexans has provided the Athens Municipality with specialised cutting-edge Fibre To The Office (FTTO) solutions, including micro-bundles and accessories.

To guarantee a high-speed internet connection and provide advanced IT-based services for the employees of City Hall, Nexans says it deployed a powerful physical infrastructure based on fibre optic technology both inside and outside the building. The indoor fibre cables with micro-bundles and accessories manufactured by Nexans were also coupled with connectivity and LANactive FTTO switches, as well as the LANactive NEXMAN management software.

Nexans believes its solution is a flexible and future-proof networking system that can adapt to the constantly changing operational needs of City Hall thanks to its scalable and modular structure. The company says its fibre optic cables were designed specifically to have a reduced volume to allow for an easy installation within the restricted space available, and are both fire resistant and halogen-free. Compared to traditional LAN, Nexans voices that its fibre optic solution provided Athens Municipality with energy savings up to 45%.

“The City of Athens has adopted FTTO as the most cost effective and energy efficient network technology for our buildings. Our digital transformation is embracing all of our employees and citizens as we try to provide advanced IT-based services for all,” says Konstantinos Champides, chief digital officer for the Athens Municipality. “Thanks to Nexans, we now have a best-in-class cabling infrastructure to support our needs for the next 25 years and enable the implementation of our digital roadmap.”

Marcel Reifenberg, technical support/software development manager at Nexans adds, “Despite the challenges of working in a historical building with limited space for installation, Nexans was able to successfully deliver the project on schedule – and without closing the building while the installation work was carried out.”