The expansion comes in the wake of increasing demand for capacity in the region, which is considered a strong emerging market. NTT Europe, a GTS CE customer, expanded its global IP network at the end of last year, with points of presence in the Hungarian capital of Budapest, Romanian capital of Bucharest and Bulgarian capital of Sofia. NTT also expressed an interest in further expanding into CEE.
The move sees GTS extend its network by 180km connecting the Hungarian capital, Budapest, through the towns of Zalaegerszeg and Nagykanizsa, crossing the Croatian border at Letenye and extending to the north Croatian city of Varasdin. This brings the total length of GTS’ Hungarian network to 2,300km.
The network has a capacity of 40Gbps per channel, with a total of 96 channels. GTS claims that the network’s DWDM system can increase capacity up to 100Gbps depending on IP traffic growth in the Balkans region.
Ignacio Irurita, CTO at GTS CE, said that the link will offer customers the opportunity to improve connectivity and services to the south east European market. He also said that the company is planning to expand its infrastructure further both in terms of network reach and metro markets: “We are currently working on further network infrastructure expansions throughout the easternmost part of our network, creating an ultra high-speed communications highway in central and eastern Europe.”
