The company said today that it will join Ngena (Next Generation Enterprise Network Alliance), the grouping of SD-WAN carriers that CenturyLink, Deutsche Telekom, Reliance Jio and SK Telecom announced in February 2016. Telia is now the 20th carrier to join Ngena, two months after Retelit joined.
Pernilla Wikman, head of global business at Telia Company, said: “Enterprises need modern data connectivity services without limits and boundaries. We are expanding our global SD-WAN portfolio by joining Ngena – and by that we will be able to address our customers needs in an even higher grade.”
In the three years since Ngena was announced by Deutsche Telkom CEO Tim Höttges at Mobile World Congress, the alliance has now grown to include 20 international carriers. Members include A1, Altice with SFR and Portugal Telecom, BT, China Unicom Global, Expereo, KPN, MTN, Neutrona, PCCW Global, Retelit, Starhub, Sunrise, Telia, Telus, Veon and Viettel, plus technology partners Cisco, Comarch and Equinix.
Telia said today by becoming a member of the alliance, it will be offering Ngena’s fully managed SD-WAN services to its enterprise customers. All alliance members will benefit from selected high quality Ethernet and internet based wholesale access services in the Nordic and Baltic regions, which will be immediately available in the Ngena portal, the company added.
Alessandro Adriani, the former Vodafone VP of international services who is now managing director at Ngena in Frankfurt, said: “The enterprise customers of all Ngena partners will benefit from the world-class access services that Telia Company is providing in the Nordic and Baltic countries. Similarly, Telia Company’s enterprise customers will be able to leverage Ngena’s SD-WAN solution and its global alliance coverage.”
Ngena announced that it will operate one of its data centre hubs at the newly opened Telia Helsinki data centre. Adriani said the opening of the core Ngena network hub “is further evidence that we are completely convinced by the professionalism of the Telia Company team and the leading edge technology, dense carrier connectivity and best-in-class environmental efficiencies”.
