UK communications provider Surf Telecoms is deploying new infrastructure to extend its optical and Ethernet services nationwide. The two phase project will utilise optical vendor Transmode’s Intelligent WDM optical platform to upgrade Surf’s infrastructure in south west Wales, before deploying a new network across the midlands region of England. The deployment is designed to support growing demand and predicted growth from Surf’s new and existing customers.
German cable company Kabel Deutschland (Kabel DL) has agreed to buy cableco Tele Columbus for approximately €618 million. The move confirms reports last week that Kabel DL fought off competition from Deutsche Telekom and Liberty Global to acquire the company. Tele Columbus has approximately 1.7 million customers and a footprint located mainly in Berlin, Dresden, Magdeburg and Potsdam. The acquisition is subject to approval from Germany’s competition authority.
NTT Communications has announced that it has reached an agreement with Brunei International Gateway (BIG), a joint venture between the Brunei government and local telecoms companies, to provide ISPs with IPv4/IPv6 dual stack global access via NTT’s global IP network. Direct connections to the network will be provided by BIG’s local infrastructure. It is claimed that this will enable local ISPs highly reliable global infrastructure for providing customers with high performance, low-latency, cost-effective global access with IPv6 capability.
Omani service provider Omantel and Bahraini incumbent Batelco have signed an MPLS IP VPN interconnectivity agreement. The partnership will allow bilateral data IP services to be sold between Oman and Bahrain and provide transit services to the two companies’ carrier partners. It will also enable Omantel and Batelco to expand their corporate VPN solutions by providing end-to-end MPLS VPN to businesses based in both countries.
KPN-owned iBasis has announced the launch of its LTE Signaling Exchange, which runs on the iBasis IPX network. The LTE signalling exchange is claimed to allow MNOs to connect to hundreds of other operators through a single interconnect, while enabling LTE roaming interoperability across multiple vendors. A number of operators have already connected to the iBasis LSX Sandbox, including Colombia’s UNE and KPN, which provides a trial environment in preparation for launching commercial LTE roaming services.
Ciena has launched its OneConnect Intelligent Control Plane, the company’s next generation of control plane software. OneConnect is designed to introduce greater programmability and advanced virtualisation features for WANs as well as greater policy-based control across the network. Ciena claims that by deploying OneConnect, carriers can benefit from more than 40% bandwidth savings for service restoration, up to 30% latency reduction in highly meshed networks, and new differentiated service offerings including secure optical virtual private networks.
Qatari operator Qtel has entered into an agreement to extend its contract with Huawei for its FTTH programme in the country. The extended contract will see both companies continue to work together on the programme, with Qtel’s fibre broadband roll-out extending to cover 90,000 connections. It is claimed that this will bring broadband penetration close to 100% for homes and businesses in Qatar.
China Telecom has launched MVNO operations in the UK under the CTExcelbiz brand. The MVNO launch is the first by a Chinese telecoms player outside of its home market. CTExcelbiz operates using the network of UK mobile player Everything Everywhere and in an MVNA partnership with Transatel. The MVNO offers tailored pay-as-you-go mobile services aimed specifically at the UK’s Chinese population, including permanent residents, students and tourists. The UK launch is expected to be a platform for China Telecom to establish similar MVNO operations in other European countries.
Chinese vendor ZTE has signed an LTE network expansion contract with Hong Kong MNO CSL. For the contract ZTE will construct a network of new base stations for CSL, and deploy its LTE Advanced capable base station solution for the first time. Through the deployment ZTE claims that CSL will be able to manage the increasing demand for network capacity and run LTE services on both the 2600MHz and 1800MHz spectrum bands, greatly enhancing LTE coverage for indoor broadband coverage. Through the deployment of the R8884 base station ZTE also claims that CSL will be able to scale to LTE Advanced services in the future at no cost.
