While SkyWrap® has long been recognised as a leading aerial fibre optic cable solution that has been installed in nearly every European country on HV transmission lines, it’s smaller cousin, AccessWrap™, is quickly catching up in popularity. AccessWrap is a lightweight system specifically designed for MV lines.

The growing demand for high speed broadband is driving the need for optical fibre networks to get ever closer to the customer premise and operators of MV power lines are increasingly looking to use their wood pole infrastructure to do just that. In the last two months, AFL has delivered AccessWrap projects into the UK, Ireland, France, Germany and the Czech Republic and word is starting to spread across the sector.

 

Paul Bennett, General Manager of AFL’s Swindon UK facility, which designs and manufactures the AccessWrap technology, commented, “AFL’s Swindon facility has been recognised as a key supplier by our UK and European power utility customers, who have requested our help to keep supporting their critical infrastructure during the COVID-19 pandemic. As such we have worked continuously throughout the pandemic operating at full capacity to meet their needs. We first developed AccessWrap five years ago to address the gap in our product portfolio for MV lines and what we’re seeing now is increasing demand for the product as companies invest in their optical fibre networks to support more remote home workers. Our known expertise in this area combined with our complete solution and experienced engineers who work side by side with the power companies own line crew during installation have been the main reasons they’ve put their trust in us.”
 

 

We all hope the pandemic will be over soon, but some of the lifestyle changes it has caused, particularly working from home. are predicted to stay. This, in turn, will keep us and our power utility customers busy with AccessWrap for the foreseeable future.