Qwest Communications Extends Alliance With Nortel Networks to Invest In Next Generation Optical Internet Solutions
Qwest Network Now Capable of Transmitting the Contents of Four Million Books
In Less Than Two Minutes Over a Single Fiber
DENVER, June 30 /PRNewswire/ -- Qwest Communications International Inc. (Nasdaq: QWST), the Internet communications company, today announced it is making a major three-year investment in the next generation of Internet technology to provide customers more speed and accessibility to Internet-based solutions. Qwest will achieve this by expanding its strategic relationship with Nortel Networks* (NYSE: NT; Toronto) and becoming the first company in North America to deploy the OPTera portfolio of optical Internet technology.
Nortel Network's OPTera* portfolio will help accelerate Qwest's ability to bring advanced Internet communications services to customers by:
-- Extending the Optical Internet to the end user, eliminating network
bottlenecks and allowing 28 million simultaneous Internet connections
on a single fiber;
-- Increasing the network backbone speed up to 1.6 terabits per second on
a single fiber -- enough speed and capacity to transport the entire
four-million book collection of the U.S. Library of Congress from
Washington, D.C. to Los Angeles in less than two minutes through one
strand of fiber;
-- Increasing reliability to 99.999 percent through advanced
Dense-Wavelength Division Multiplexing (D-WDM) optical rings in
metropolitan areas for scalable connectivity at the edge of the
network;
-- Allowing Qwest to bring new services to market quickly and at a
reduced cost.
Nortel Networks latest optical technology also gives Qwest the scalability to quickly and economically handle increased traffic and services to support its acquisition plans. Qwest's North American network is based on Nortel Network's industry-leading 10 gigabit per second and D-WDM optical networking platform.
"Qwest is the first company to build the most advanced and comprehensive all-optical network, delivering leading-edge communications services to customers worldwide," said Afshin Mohebbi, Qwest's president and chief operating officer. "With the addition of Nortel Networks' OPTera solutions, we rapidly accelerate our ability to deliver the next level of Internet-based communications services."
Yankee Group analyst Christin Flynn commented, "Once again Qwest is upping the ante for service providers everywhere by fundamentally changing the economics of the Internet, the speed of the Internet and the accessibility of the Internet with the most advanced optical technology from Nortel Networks."
"Together, Qwest and Nortel Networks are deploying the latest in Optical Internet technology," said Clarence Chandran, President, Carrier Packet Solutions, Nortel Networks. "Qwest was the first service provider to create a network based entirely on a 10 Gigabit-per-second optical platform. Today, Qwest is extending the Optical Internet and all of the exciting services that high speed optics make possible directly to end users."
Over 75% of the Internet traffic in North America is carried over Nortel Networks optical solutions.
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