Tellium and LU score large in optical box sales. From teledotcom.com
teledotcom.com
Telecom Providers Invest Millions In Optical Networking Equipment
By Bob Wallace,InformationWeek
[ what is interesting here is that LU is an investor in Tellium, as is Cisco and several others - fac ]
TELECOM PROVIDERS Cable & Wireless Plc. and Nextlink Communications Inc. are looking to boost capacity on their fiber cable networks and to deliver bandwidth to users more quickly.
How will they do this? By investing heavily in advanced optical networking equipment from Tellium Inc. and Lucent Technologies Inc., respectively, announced the telecoms. The move is part of an emerging carrier trend that could benefit both service providers and their customers.
"The future is so bright for optical networking that users will have to wear shades," said Daniel Briere, founder of telecom consulting firm TeleChoice Inc., Tulsa, Okla.
International service provider Cable & Wireless (stock: CWP) will install at least $350 million worth of Tellium's optical switches in its global IP network over the next five years. Tellium, Monmouth, N.J., will also provide its StarNet routing and restoration software and its Wavelength Management System, which helps carriers deliver bandwidth faster, with more flexibility, and in larger chunks than previous fiber-optic offerings. Cable & Wireless, London, will begin installing the products early next year.
Nationwide telecom provider Nextlink (stock: NXLK) has signed a contract with Lucent (stock: LU) whereby it will deploy the vendor's WaveStar optical networking products to remotely manage and distribute bandwidth along its work-in-progress 16,000-mile, intercity, fiber-optic network.
The first phase calls for Nextlink, Mclean, Va., to spend $25 million on Lucent's wares. The vendor's WaveStar TDM 10G will let it transmit traffic at speeds up to 10 Gbytes/s, while the BandWidth Manager will allow Nextlink to switch customer links remotely from its network operations center. The initial deployment phase will take 18 months.
"Although this equipment was designed to help carriers with capacity and bandwidth-management problems, its use benefits companies because they can get more bandwidth quicker and eventually at lower prices than they pay today," said Briere.
The optical networking equipment can also be used as a foundation to offer new optical services, such as high-bandwidth metro-area network offerings, he said. |
