Siemon’s category 7A cabling system has been chosen for use in the  new Vodafone headquarters in Milan, Italy. Vodafone is a mobile communications company.

This significant, sustainable and future-proof new location was officially inaugurated earlier this year by Italian Prime Minister, Mario Monti. The opening ceremony was attended by the CEO of Vodafone Italy and Southern Europe, Paolo Bertoluzzo, the Vodafone Group CEO, Vittorio Colao, and the Mayor of Milan.

Approximately 20,000 category 7A TERA(R) outlets and 1000 km of 1000MHz category 7A TERA cable were used to build the network at the new campus, which houses Vodafone’s entire Milan-based workforce.  Modern IT systems were required to support all daily business operations and serve several thousand employees in offices, call centers and other locations across the campus, including a 400-seat auditorium for external events.  

The IT infrastructure to support this significant development was the responsibility of Marco Lavia, Vodafone’s IT voice network operations manager. For the underlying physical IT network cabling he specified a future-proof cabling solution capable of supporting Vodafone’s IT systems into the future.  As he explains, “Considering that we wanted to deploy a solution that lasts, Siemon’s fully standards-compliant category 7A solution, TERA, with its longer estimated lifecycle, became the obvious choice to maximize our return on investment.”

Vodafone has harnessed TERA’s cable sharing capability, which allows one cable to deliver up to four independent 1-pair or 2-pair data or voice applications to a single work area outlet. According to Vodafone, this feature has proved particularly useful in call center areas where VoIP telephones are in use.

“Today a single TERA outlet serves two VoIP phones (2-pair services) through 2-pair hybrid patch cords, which reduces the number of installed outlets by approximately 12 to 15 per cent,” explained Marco Lavia. “Less cable means more efficient use of pathways and less raw materials which, in turn, helps us to protect the environment.”

In the office environment, standard 4-pair patch cords are in use, enabling Vodafone to take advantage of a future 10Gb/s PC connection.

With 20,000 outlets installed in total, port density was a concern for Vodafone. To solve this issue, Siemon provided a solution in the form of unique RJ45-style patch cords with its patented Blade Patch design. These cords can be inserted and removed without the need to press an external latch and require less ‘finger space’ around each patch cord, eliminating density problems.

VodafoneVillageis a modern, eco-sustainable complex, supported by an IT cabling infrastructure expected to future-proof the site for the next 20 years. Today the cabling system supports all typical data and voice applications and at the same time accommodates higher bandwidth, ready for next generation applications.

“We have created a modern, interactive and flexible environment, not only for our employees, but also for customers and visitors. The choice of Siemon as our network cabling partner is fully in-line with our green philosophy. Siemon’s TERA solution will support our IT applications for many years to come and we will benefit from a full system warranty that covers us for 20 years. What more could we ask for?” said Lavia.