From October 27-29th, the World Optical Fibre & Cable Virtual Conference 2020 was held in Beijing, a grand gala in the world optical fibre and cable industry. Held online for the first time, this conference attracted telecommunication operators, optical fibre and cable vendors, and upstream and downstream enterprises in the industry chain throughout the world.

YOFC, a global leading optical fibre and cable provider, has been either a participant or a co-organizer of numerous World Optical Fibre & Cable Conferences. It is now a long-established partner of this event and continues to be a part of the gathering in 2020. On the evening of October 26th, Mr. Zhuang Dan, Executive Director and President of YOFC, delivered a keynote speech entitled Embrace the Challenges and Opportunities in the Post-pandemic Era, Move Faster Towards the All-optical Network Era, in which he shared some insights with the industry.

He noted that the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic had rattled the entire world and completely disrupted the way people live their everyday lives. In response to the pandemic, the Chinese government has taken effective measures to curb its spread. Thanks to its heroic efforts, China has emerged victorious against the pandemic. Its social and economic vitality has bounced back, and enterprises have resumed production. Despite the impact the pandemic had on the world economy, the demand for optical fibre and cable never faltered. As a result of this imbalance between supply and demand, the industry is currently facing continuous pressure in regards to pricing, and has had to make adjustments to the supply structure. He pointed out in his speech, "There are two sides to every coin. Although the pandemic has presented us with severe challenges, the government, society, and enterprises are all trying to surmount it through the use of technology. This has stimulated the demand for related products and platforms, which brings a great opportunity for all-optical networks and data center services. New economic models, including online education, remote offices, and telemedicine, have emerged practically overnight, reflecting the huge demands of society for new infrastructure such as 5G and big data. Meanwhile, as 5G ushers in its golden era, and the epidemic highlights the market demand for bandwidth upgrades, the optical fibre and cable market is expected to rebound".

Mr. Zhuang Dan stated that when faced with both challenge and opportunity, YOFC will continue pushing its all-optical F5G and developing new technologies and products. By integrating fixed networks with mobile networks through having one network in the air and another on the ground, YOFC will be able to build a brand new IoT and provide new ways of thinking along with innovative and cooperative solutions for industry figures. Specifically, YOFC has helped digitize production and both campus and city life by introducing all-optical networks. It builds agile, intelligent, green, and comprehensive all-optical data centers that provide full life-cycle solutions and employs various applications in collation with the Cloud to embrace a new era of 5G infrastructure. YOFC has also helped build additional IT-based urban rail transportation. It has contributed not only by providing and achieving full 5G networks coverage, but also in making Gigabit smart metro networks a reality. The nervous system built for digital grids has been successfully applied to the State Grid's extra-high voltage transmission project, signaling a new era for electrical communication network applications. YOFC has built 5G+ all-optical industrial internet to help create more smart enterprises. In addition, YOFC is committed to contributing to the post-pandemic all-optical network industry even further by cooperating with operators to set up 5G fronthaul networks which can transform single products into comprehensive solutions.

Online roundtable discussion

In the conference, Mr. Zhuang Dan exchanged ideas with top executives from Corning and Prysmian Group on how the optical fibre and cable industry should respond to the pandemic and what opportunities and challenges the industry is currently facing.

In 2015, YOFC cooperated with CRU in organizing the Asian-Pacific Optical Fibre & Cable Conference in China's Optical Valley in Wuhan. This marks the first time this international event has come to China and the whole of Asia. In 2016 and 2017, YOFC continued to cooperate with CRU by taking the event to a next level and turning it into the World Optical Fibre & Cable Conference, thus making it the most influential platform for the entire global optical fibre and cable industry. From 2019 to 2021, the World Optical Fibre & Cable Conference will be jointly held by CRU along with Corning, Prysmian Group, and YOFC in turn. In 2021, YOFC will cooperate with CRU again in hosting the World Optical Fibre & Cable Conference. It will be the fourth time that YOFC and CRU have joined hands, which illustrates how CRU recognizes YOFC's leading position in the world's optical fibre and cable industry.

CRU World Optical Fibre & Cable Conference

Hosted by the UK-based world-renowned analysis institute CRU, the World Optical Fibre & Cable Conference is an annual gathering of the global telecommunication and optical fibre & cable sector. Notably, CRU market analysis reports about the optical fibre and cable industry are recognized by the industry, and serve as reference for upstream and downstream enterprises in the industry chain.