Viatel Selects Lucent's AllWave(TM) Fiber
for Intra-City Fiber Links in Europe
PARIS, May 11 /PRNewswire/ -- Lucent Technologies (NYSE: LU - news) today announced
that Viatel, Inc. (Nasdaq: VYTL - news) will use AllWave fiber for its intra-city links in
Europe.
For Lucent, the agreement marks the first use its AllWave Fiber in Europe. AllWave Fiber, the
industry's first fiber specially designed for metropolitan networks, harnesses a previously
untapped region in the fiber spectrum -- an area associated with the water peak -- to enable
network providers, such as Viatel, to deliver new services and data capabilities more cost
effectively.
By implementing a new ultra-purifying manufacturing process from Bell Labs, Lucent has been
able to virtually eliminate water molecules in the glass fiber that made some light regions in the
fiber spectrum previously unusable, resulting in 50 percent more useable wavelengths than
today's conventional single-mode fiber.
Viatel initially will deploy the AllWave fiber in Paris, one of the six cities that are linked
together on the first phase of Viatel's Circe Pan- European Network. The other cities on the
1,850 route kilometer first phase are London, Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Antwerp, Brussels and
Amiens. Construction of Ring One was completed in February of this year and began carrying
commercial traffic in March. Viatel intends to use the fiber to connect select business centers in
Paris to its Circe broadband backbone.
''With Circe, we are setting a new standard for cross-border connectivity in Europe,'' said
Viatel President and Chief Executive Officer, Michael J. Mahoney. ''By equipping it with
Lucent's innovative fiber solutions -- TrueWave and AllWave -- our network will be the most
technologically advanced fiber-optic network in all of Europe.''
The Circe Pan-European Network is an 8,700 route kilometer broadband infrastructure that will
soon connect over 40 European cities in the United Kingdom, Belgium, France, Germany,
Switzerland and The Netherlands.
Construction of the network's first phase was completed last February and began carrying
commercial traffic in March. Ring Two -- the initial segments of which will be completed early
during the third quarter of 1999 -- will add the following cities to the network: Dusseldorf,
Frankfurt and Mannheim in Germany and Nancy and Strasbourg in France.
Ring Three -- which links Koln, Essen, Dortmund, Bremen, Hamburg, Berlin, Dresden, Liepzig,
Nurnberg, Munich and Stuttgart -- will be operational in early 2000. Rings Four and Five --
which expand the network's reach throughout France and Switzerland -- will be operational
during mid-year 2000.
''As the innovator in the industry, Lucent is once again creating a new standard in fiber optic
communications for companies like Viatel,'' said Denys Gounot, chief operating officer, cable
systems, for Lucent Technologies. ''Viatel, the first company in the world to implement ITU
G.655 TrueWave RS Fiber in its network, now becomes the first provider to implement
AllWave Fiber in Europe.''
''Lucent's TrueWave RS Fiber has provided us with extended capacity to take full advantage of
DWDM technology in our long distance Circe network,'' Mahoney said. ''The new AllWave
Fiber affords us the opportunity to add important, new intra-city connections to our fiber
network, enable us to meet the growing needs of our customer base throughout Western Europe.''
Headquartered in New York, NY, Viatel is a facilities-based international and domestic
long-distance telecommunications company with international gateways in New York and
London, network points of presence in over 45 European cities, a direct sales force in 12
Western European cities, and indirect sales outlets in more than 180 additional locations
throughout Western Europe. More information about Viatel may be found by visiting the
company's website at viatel.com.
Lucent Technologies, the largest vertically integrated fiber-optic cable manufacturer in the
world, has a long list of ''firsts'' in optical fiber technology. Bell Labs is responsible for such
major innovative fiber-optic technology inventions as the laser in 1958. In 1978, Lucent was the
first to offer optical fiber ribbons, now sold as part of its AccuRibbon product line. The
company also installed the industry's first long haul fiber optic system connecting Washington to
Boston in the 1970s.
To date, Lucent has shipped more than 6 billion meters of its award- winning TrueWave Fiber to
customers around the world.
Lucent Technologies designs, builds and delivers a wide range of public and private networks,
communications systems and software, business telephone systems and microelectronics
components. Bell Labs is the research and development arm for the company. More information
about Lucent Technologies, headquartered in Murray Hill, NJ, is available on its Web site at
lucent.com. |
