FTTH Council Europe Names ADTRAN’s Ronan Kelly as New President

Kelly to spearhead efforts focusing on operators, accelerating fibre deployments and evangelizing FTTH and its economic benefits

ADTRAN®, Inc., (NASDAQ:ADTN), today announced Ronan Kelly, CTO for the EMEA & APAC Regions at ADTRAN, was appointed President of the Fibre To The Home (FTTH) Council Europe. Kelly previously held the role of Treasurer for the 124 member company organization and becomes the eighth president of the council since its creation in 2004. Among other duties, Kelly will spearhead advocacy for the group, focusing on the role FTTH deployments play in the modern European economy and the globally connected marketplace. Kelly will also promote how fibre technology is enabling a flow of new operator services to enhance the quality of life, contribute to a better environment and increase economic competitiveness.

As President, Kelly will take the lead on several initiatives set by the FTTH Council Europe, including supporting ongoing European FTTH rollouts and educating the market about the economic benefits delivered when communities and homes are connected to fibre. This is especially important in some parts of Europe where FTTH is just beginning to gain market share, including:

• Ireland where less than 4,000 new FTTH customers were connected in the first nine months of 2015;
• Croatia, Germany and Poland that recently attained the 1% threshold the FTTH Council Europe uses to track leading economies in Europe with FTTH deployments; and
• Austria, the U.K. and Belgium all of whom have yet to meet the 1% threshold for inclusion in the recent council report.

As part of the ongoing work of the FTTH Council Europe, Kelly will look to push for accelerated fibre deployments into 2017 and beyond as the FTTH market adopts a more business-friendly stance to broadband policies.

“We have seen the transformative effects fibre deployments have had for businesses and communities worldwide, and we will continue to facilitate that change throughout Europe,” said Ronan Kelly. “That starts with providing broadband stakeholders and operators the necessary resources to deliver critical broadband services to those who require them, something the FTTH Council Europe is uniquely qualified to do.”

To learn more about those elected to the board and committees of the FTTH Council Europe, please visit http://www.ftthcouncil.eu/about-us/about-us/people.

About ADTRAN

ADTRAN, Inc. is a leading global provider of networking and communications equipment. ADTRAN’s products enable voice, data, video and Internet communications across a variety of network infrastructures. ADTRAN solutions are currently in use by service providers, private enterprises, government organizations, and millions of individual users worldwide. For more information, please visit www.adtran.com.

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Connect2 Communications for ADTRANAshley Baster Schulte, [e-mail]