by Stefan Heldens, Nokia Head of Business Management FN Enterprise / Chair, APOLAN European Committee

Orange France recently committed to deploying a Passive Optical LAN (POL) solution for more than 20 sites throughout France, including Bridge, the company’s headquarters in Issy-les Moulineaux, near Paris. Orange’s new POL solution replaces existing copper-based LAN, connecting more than 5,000 end points, including Wi-Fi and hard-wired terminals.

“Moving to POL for our intraoffice connectivity can save significant energy costs and reduce emissions, which is essential to help Orange meet its ambitious environmental goals,” said Philippe Gacougnolle, Orange France director of the internal network domain.

Orange’s Bridge headquarters campus was designed to deliver an enhanced workplace experience to employees through digital services, including collaborative tools, geolocated room booking and building management services. For example, occupants can use a mobile app throughout their workday to plan their travel to work, find available parking spaces, and navigate a full map of the building, among other services.

POL enables Orange to deliver superior user experiences and offers a low-energy solution for in-building and campus connectivity. The fiber-based networking solution delivers long-term value and can be easily and cost-efficiently upgraded to increase speed and capacity. Security enhancements include built-in encryption and central control, as all intelligence of the network resides in the optical line terminal rather than at the user end-points.

“Switching from traditional LAN to POL technology means a more compact solution, with less energy consumption and much better performance proving the best possible user experience,” said Stephane Azoulay, head of the Orange France account for Nokia, Orange’s partner for POL solution implementation.

Orange is one of the world’s leading telecommunications operators with more than 278 million customers and 137,000 employees worldwide, including 76,000 employees in France.