Friday Network News: May 24

Argentinean operator ARSAT has partnered with Alcatel-Lucent for the deployment of a nationwide 100G fibre-optic network in the country. The implementation is expected to enable high-capacity data communications on a route between Buenos Aires and Mendoza, and a second route running from Rio Gallegos to Ushuaia. [read more]

Tata Communications has signed a five-year strategic voice sourcing agreement with over-the-top VoIP provider Vonage Holdings Corp. Under the terms of the agreement, Tata will provide Vonage with access to its global network and make further investments in systems, tools and processes to improve voice call quality. [read more]

Brazilian wireless provider, ON Telecom, has partnered with AIRCOM International for the design and optimisation of its LTE network in the country. ON Telecom is a start-up company and claims to leverage LTE spectrum for the delivery of high-quality broadband services to its customers. [read more]

Verizon has announced it will begin the deployment of small cells into its 4G LTE network after partnering with Alcatel-Lucent. The US operator’s 4G LTE network now reportedly covers over 95% of its 3G network footprint, and Verizon hopes the implementation of small cells to deliver a more balanced approach to network capacity. [read more]

Telenor Sweden has reportedly completed the upgrade of its nationwide 2G network. Over the past 18 months, network coverage for voice calls and text messages is said to have improved at 1,200 sites, and the number of 2G base stations increased by 50%. [read more]

Moroccan regulators are planning to launch tenders for 4G mobile licences at the end of the year. The Telecommunications Regulatory National Agency (ANRT) said in a statement it wants to be one of the first African countries to gain access to 4G telecoms services. [read more]

BT and Ciena have reported successful network trials on BT’s optical core infrastructure. The trials, which took place in March this year, included the transmission of 100G, 200G and 400G, as well as an 800G ‘super channel’. [read more]

Indian data centre provider Netmagic Solutions has announced plans to open a data centre in Bangalore by December this year. The India Bangalore 2 Data Centre will be situated in Electronics City, Bangalore, and Netmagic, subsidiary of NTT Communications, hopes it to address the supply constraints it has identified in the country. [read more]

euNetworks has launched a diverse route from London to Basildon in the UK. The move will support the pan-European bandwidth infrastructure provider’s low latency link from Basildon to Frankfurt, Germany, which went live in December 2012. [read more]

Optus has announced the launch of Time-Division Long Term Evolution (TD-LTE) network trials for customers in Canberra, Australia. Existing 4G networks in Australia run on Frequency Division (FD) LTE, which uses two separate frequency channels to deliver data in both directions to Sydney, Melbourne, Perth, Brisbane, Adelaide, the Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast, Coffs Harbour, Byron Bay, Toowoomba and the Newcastle/Hunter region. [read more]