Cables and Assemblies for Belgacom
Belgacom is Belgium's largest telecom company and is currently introducing VDSL2, a high-speed ADSL system. Unfortunately, the company discovered that conventional cables were too stiff for use in the road-side cabinets and made it difficult to close the cabinet doors.
Belgacom contacted Swildens about the supply of highly flexible cables complying to the relevant electrical and mechanical standards. Furthermore, the cables had to be fitted with connectors of several types and be available at a short lead-time. These cables are similar to Cat 5 cables, but have 24 or more core pairs and are terminated with both 100-pin and RJ connectors.
Swildens acted as the liaison between the technical experts of Belgacom and the cable manufacturer. It took the manufacturer only three weeks to supply samples for testing by Belgacom. Once the design was finalised, series production was ramped up and the first batches of cables were supplied four weeks later.
The availability of these customised cables at short notice helped Belgacom to keep to its schedule. VDSL2 has now been successfully rolled out in Belgium.
