My visit to Alcatel’s FITL facility in Toledo was a memorable glimpse into how the future of access networks was being built in. The plant combined the feel of a precision electronics workshop with the rhythm of a modern factory, and what struck me immediately was the quiet choreography of automation: small autonomous robots gliding along marked floor tracks, ferrying modules and subassemblies between workstations with an efficiency that felt decades ahead of its time. Inside the lab, engineers walked me through the practical side of fibre-based access systems—how the modules were designed, assembled, calibrated, and prepared for deployment in Europe’s early fibre-in-the-loop rollouts—without overwhelming the discussion with theory. Rows of optical units, circuit boards, and weatherproof housings filled the workspaces, each representing another piece of the transition from copper to fibre that telecom operators were only beginning to explore seriously. It was a single day’s visit, but it left me with the sense that I had stepped into a workshop where the next era of access networks was quietly taking shape, one module at a time.
More info: https://kun.co.ro/2005/09/04/toledo/
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