Another article on Alcatel's fiber optic expansion:
October 09, 1999 14:13
Alcatel Leads the World in Optical Transmission Solutions
Alcatel Investing US$ 180 Million in its Optical Business to Meet Growing Customer Demand
Alcatel at Telecom Geneva - Hall 4, Stand no. 210
GENEVA, Oct. 9 /PRNewswire/ -- Alcatel success in optical transmission -- its integrated portfolio of terrestrial and undersea networking solutions, plus advanced optical components -- continues to set the pace in the global marketplace.
In September, Alcatel Chairman and CEO, Serge Tchuruk announced annual sales of DWDM (Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing) equipment -- the most advanced technology now being implemented in many of the world's operators' backbone and metropolitan network infrastructures -- amounted to a world-leading US$1.3 billion. Today, Alcatel announces that booming customer demand globally is leading the company to invest US$ 180 million in its optical businesses. The investments include:
-- Over US$80 million in two new cable ships for installing and burying
long-haul underwater telecommunications cables. The purchase is a
direct result of the rising demand for bandwidth created by the
Internet, new multimedia applications and high-bandwidth access
technologies such as ADSL (Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line).
-- Further expansion of its optical component manufacturing capacity to
comply with the millennium explosive growth in demand for opto,
electronic components. Alcatel is doubling the Alcatel optronics
facility in Nozay (Paris area, France) through its ambitious program
called "Optronics 2000" at a cost of US$ 100 million.
Alcatel targets the world's operators demanding optical terabit core network solutions. In today's highly volatile and competitive carrier environment, operators no longer differentiate between terrestrial and undersea parts of a network -- they simply want a fully resilient, leading-edge, end-to-end communications network.
The only company in the world with both a terrestrial and undersea capability in optical transport is Alcatel. Unlike competitors, it does not have to partner with others to deliver an end-to-end, ocean-to-city network solution. Therefore, Alcatel is alone in being able to deliver true end-to-end global transmission networks, including any undersea link. In each of these sectors, Alcatel has a global market lead, including 45% of the total annual undersea transmission market by value.
Moreover, the systems are integrated by a single, common Network Management System enabling, among other functions, efficient traffic control and routing throughout all network levels.
Alcatel offers a uniform optical solution for each customer: a uniform optical transmission network, uniform network management and common, integrated technologies, whether terrestrial or undersea. It can pass on the benefits of standard transmission components and software development, for example, and ensure the highest standards of reliability -- even a common look "n" feel among the network elements.
Christian Reinaudo, President of Alcatel Optics, explains: "Carrier networks are evolving to address the dramatic growth in IP-based services and Internet traffic, in line with the evolution of the Internet itself as a strategic business tool. Alcatel's 'Instant Internet' solutions enable carriers, enterprises and end-users alike to exploit the opportunities emerging from the revolution in the way we live and work that the public global Internet and its private counterparts, corporate intranets and to-end optical channel, available from Alcatel's coherent, single-sourced, own-developed optical solutions portfolio."
Within the ETSI (European Telecommunications Standards Institute) remit of Europe alone, Alcatel has delivered 70,000 add/drop multiplexers, 850 digital cross-connects, 500 optical network systems and 6,500 microwave SDH (Synchronous Digital Hierarchy) transceivers; for the ANSI market, figures include 17,500 SONET ADMs, 4,100 digital cross-connects and 1,200 optical network systems.
At Telecom 99, Alcatel is also announcing:
-- A US$84 million initial contract from Pangea Ltd to deliver two undersea cables across the North Sea, each with a capacity of 3.6 Tbit/s. The cables will form part of a self-healing ring linking five European capital cities.
-- A Multi-million rand contract to supply DWDM and SDH equipment to South Africa Telekom, enhancing Telekom's existing infrastructure as part of a fully-managed solution.
-- Alcatel has recently been awarded a contract by Shandong PTA to build up a DWDM link from Jinan to Qingdao, providing a transmission capacity of 16 channels at 2.5 Gbps on each fibre pair. This has been confirmed as the first 16-channel DWDM link contract ever signed in China.
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