Friday Network News: May 18
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Friday Network News: May 18

Capacity brings you the latest network news. If you have network developments you'd like us to share, please email robert.anderson@capacitymedia.com or tweet us @capacitymag.

Verizon Wireless has expanded its 4G network to 28 new US markets, and improved coverage in 11 existing markets. The latest deployments bring Verizon’s LTE network total to 258 markets across the country, reaching more than two thirds of the population. Verizon hopes to expand its LTE network further to more than 140 new locations, across 49 states.

Zayo announced at ITW 2012 that it would be implementing enhancements on its low latency route between the US cities of Chicago and Seattle for improved service for financial, content and carrier customers. The route came as part of the company’s acquisition of 360networks, and David Howson, president at Zayo confessed there had been in bound requests from financial trading companies in particular for the route to be enhanced for usage. The upgrade is due to be implemented in Q3 2012, roughly the same time Zayo expects its acquisition of AboveNet to go through.

Mozambique mobile operator Movitel has launched its network in 105 districts. Movitel is claiming to have rolled out 1,800 mobile base transceiver stations (BTS) and deployed 12,600km of fibre-optic cable. Parent company, Vietnamese mobile operator Viettel, has invested approximately $117 million in the country to date, having acquired a licence for $29 million in January 2011.

Telecom Italia Sparkle and iBasis have signed an IPX interconnection agreement to support voice, LTE signalling and GRX traffic. Both companies heralded the agreement as an industry first and particularly significant for service providers transitioning networks to IP, with the aim to support services such as LTE roaming, video conferencing and HD voice.

Liberty Global’s wholesale unit UPC Wholesale has launched a pan-European local access service, providing end-to-end Ethernet services on its own infrastructure. The service is claimed to allow international wholesale carriers and system providers to do business with one supplier for their local access needs in 10 European markets and is accessible from major European Telehouses. The service will connect networks from Ireland to Romania and is fully managed by Liberty Global’s Network Operating Centre (NOC).

Hutchison Telecommunications has launched a neutral interconnection platform through its subsidiary, NextGen MultiMedia. Blue City is designed to provide carriers with a neutral platform to manage local and international co-location, demuxing and interconnection as well as virtual meet-me room-related services. The platform is also designed to offer carriers their own choice of international connectivity.

The strategic business unit of SSE PLC, SSE Telecoms, has selected Ciena for the deployment of 100G optical networking technology on its UK national network. The high capacity links, which are already deployed and operational, connect SSE Telecoms’ sites in Manchester and Hampshire to the Global Switch 2 data centre located in London’s Docklands area. Ciena claims that by utilising its Wavelogic solution, SEE will be able to offer a far more efficient provisioning of high-capacity services.

Belize Telemedia is planning to launch LTE services in October, according to local newspaper The Guardian. The network is funded by an $8 million government loan, with Ericsson selected as the vendor for its deployment, following a contract signed in February 2011.

Bandwidth infrastructure provider euNetworks has announced a 100G upgrade to its European long-haul transport platform. Ciena has been selected for the upgrade, which did not involve any network infrastructure changes and will be applied between the cities of Frankfurt, London, Amsterdam, Paris, Dusseldorf, Hamburg, Dublin and Manchester. According to euNetworks the upgrade is being carried out due to customer demand for greater capacity and 100G circuits.

TeliaSonera has announced that it will build and operate a pan-European optical network for Facebook. The agreement, which was announced at ITW 2012, will provide the social media giant with internet exchange points in multiple European cities, including within its data centre in Lulea, Sweden. Ivo Pascucci, sales director, Americas region at TeliaSonera told Capacity it was natural for Facebook to look at TeliaSonera for such a solution, considering where the company had decided to build its European data centre.

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