Friday Network News: October 19

Satellite provider Intelsat has announced the successful launch of the Intelsat 23 satellite from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Intelsat 23 has a life span of more than 18 years and will provide enhanced capacity for enterprise, oil and gas, and data networking applications. It will replace the Intelsat 707 satellite at 307 degrees east providing C-band services to customers in the Americas, Europe and Africa, with Ku-band coverage in Latin America. The launch is part of Intelsat’s fleet replacement and expansion campaign which is scheduled for completion in early 2013.  

Middle Eastern carrier’s carrier Gulf Bridge International (GBI) has deployed full 100G connectivity between its Egyptian landing station and the company’s PoP in Milan. Working with vendor Xtera Communications, GBI is delivering 100G waves on both subsea and terrestrial sections of the 5,000km Zararana to Milan route. It claimed that the link is the first commercial repeatered submarine cable system with 100G technology. The backhaul networks at either end of the connection are the first commercial systems in the world with installed design capacity of 90 x 100G, said GBI, using Reconfigurable Optical Add Drop Multiplexers (ROADMs) to ensure maximal network resiliency and speedy restoration of traffic in the event of plant failure.

Spanish ISP SARENET has selected Carrier Ethernet specialist Overture’s Ethernet over Copper (EoC) solutions to support its 20Mbps service. EoC enables Carrier Ethernet services over existing copper infrastructure and will supply SARENET with additional bandwidth capacity, flexible QoS and superior reliability, according to Overture.

Interoute has launched 100Gb Ethernet services in partnership with digital software vendor Infinera. Interoute will offer 100Gbps Ethernet services across Europe, spanning 60,000km of lit fibre, connecting 30 countries in 102 cities. The pan-European operator, which links from Stockholm to Sicily, Moscow to Madrid and London to Istanbul, made the upgrade to 100Gb Ethernet to keep up with demand. By integrating 100Gbs Ethernet service support on the DTN into Interoute’s highly meshed network, the company hopes it will be able to address high demand for bandwidth.

Russian carrier MegaFon has successfully tested 100Gbps technology in collaboration with network vendor Cisco on an existing DWDM network. The test involved the successful incorporation of Cisco’s 100G technology, on networks based on other vendor’s equipment. Cisco’s technology was deployed at a distance of 140 and 384km, while additional solutions were also tested over dark fibre at 60 and 120km.

Huawei is claiming it will build China’s first coherent 100Gbps optical transmission network for Gansu Administration of Radio, Film and Television. The provincial backbone is being upgraded to cater for bandwidth intensive services, including video on demand, and rapid growth in broadband users. The deployment is designed to meet Gansu Administration’s service requirements for the next five years and will comply with China’s Next Generation Broadcasting project of the State Administration of Radio, Film and TV.

Alcatel-Lucent’s Chinese subsidiary has won a contract to deploy the largest share of China Mobile’s TD-LTE network roll-out. Alcatel-Lucent Shanghai Bell will extend services to 10 cities across China, and after upgrades to three existing networks, the latest trial TD-LTE network will cover an additional three cities to total 13. Terms of the contract include the delivery of approximately 3,000 base stations in the cities of Shanghai, Nanjing and Qingdao, the three major economic hubs of China. It is expected the network extension will occur in early 2013.

Spanish telecoms operator COTA and its partner Wimax Online have successfully completed a TD LTE broadband pilot in Murcia, Spain, in collaboration with Nokia Siemens Networks. The pilot comes ahead of a commercial service launch in November. The network is claimed to be southern Europe’s first TD LTE 2.6GHz network. COTA plans to provide Wimax Online with wholesale access to the network and both operators will provide DSL equivalent services in areas of the Murcia region where there is no fixed internet connectivity and VoIP. COTA is also planning to provide IPTV services in the future.

Deutsche Telekom’s international wholesale arm has launched an application delivery network (ADN) in collaboration with CDN provider EdgeCast. The service, which is claimed to substantially improve the performance and throughput of web applications, is based on EdgeCast’s CDN technology. Deutsche’s International Carrier Sales & Solutions (ICSS) wing said that the ADN had been extensively tested, with proven efficiency in customised information portals, e-commerce and booking engine applications, social media services and other online tools. The ADN will serve both static and dynamic content for cases where the two cannot be separated or it is not ideal to do so, with “wholesite” delivery applications according to Deutsche.

Verizon has announced that it will launch 4G LTE services in its 400th market next week ahead of schedule. The US carrier had originally planned to provide LTE access in its 400th market by the end of the year. By next week Verizon said it will provide services in 417 markets across the US, equivalent to 245 million citizens, or four fifths of the population. The company said that by the end of September 35% of its data traffic was being carried on the 4G LTE network. Users will have access to average downlink speeds of 5 to 12Mbps and uplink speeds of 2 to 5Mbps on the network.

TeliaSonera has announced it has signed a global IP transit service agreement with Georgian telephone provider Caucasus Online. TeliaSonera International Carrier will supply Caucasus Online with IP transit connectivity based on its global IP network. The deal will enable Caucasus Online to power its user with scalable, global reach at the speed of fibre. It is thought the Georgian company has selected TeliaSonera to ensure consumers can benefit from high-speed access and address demand for content, gaming and social communities.