Friday Network News: November 30

 Reliance Globalcom has selected Ciena’s 100G optical networking solutions to upgrade its FLAG Europe-Asia submarine network. The 100G network upgrade is expected to bring substantial capacity increases to the route connecting Egypt to Jordan, catering to growing high-bandwidth requirements in the region and leveraging the company’s existing fibre infrastructure. As part of the upgrade, Reliance Globalcom will deploy a 100G DWDM system, with Ciena’s platform utilising the vendor’s network architecture, equipped with WaveLogic coherent optical line interfaces.

 Russian operator MegaFon has begun a modernisation of its network in the far eastern Magadan region. The project will see MegaFon’s transport network infrastructure changed to IP technologies, improving its coverage in the region and allowing it to cater for increasing mobile data use. MegaFon said the upgrade had already allowed it to increase the rate of data transmission on its network and improve the quality of voice communications. Data transmission has been significantly increased in several regional centres as a result, according to the operator. Average mobile internet traffic on the network in the third quarter of 2012 exceeded eight terabits.

 European operator Interoute has acquired Comendo Network, a subsidiary of Danish IT company Comendo A/S. The move is designed to strengthen Interoute’s position in the Nordic market for international communications and network services, and doubles Interoute’s presence in Denmark. Gareth Williams, CEO at Interoute said the move enhances the company’s cloud-based network, with a particular focus on video communications.

 Chinese vendor Huawei has launched a Network Operations Centre (NOC) in Cairo, Egypt. The site in the Smart Village area of the city is dedicated to the operations and management of telecoms networks, and will provide professional services to operators in North Africa. The main functions of the Egyptian NOC will be front office operations, back office operations, workforce management, operation support management and network performance management. It will support 2G, 3G and 4G LTE networks.

titlearrow.gif Syria’s international internet connectivity shut down at 10:26am GMT yesterday with all 84 of the country’s IP address blocks becoming unreachable, according to Renesys. The research firm said that the event effectively removed the country from the internet. Renesys then reported that 77 Syrian networks experienced an outage beginning at 10:26am, all of which are owned by the Syrian Telecommunications Establishment. This number represents 92% of all routed networks in the country.

 TeliaSonera has launched 4G services in Moldova through its subsidiary Moldcell, offering mobile broadband speeds up to 10 times faster than its 3G network. The Nordic carrier said that its 4G rollout would initially be focused in areas with the largest need for high mobile data capacity, like city centres. The operator said that 4G would open new opportunities for the country and Moldcell’s business clients.

 PLDT subsidiary Smart Communications has deployed Nokia Siemens Networks’ (NSN) wide band adaptive multi-rate technology to enable HD voice services for customers in the Philippines. Pilot implementations of the service have already been completed in Makati, Taguig and Rizal. The service is initially being deployed on Smart’s 3G network but the operator’s 2G network will also be upgraded at a later date. NSN is also deploying its network management system as part of the contract.

 Vivendi’s SFR has launched, what is claimed to be, France’s first public 4G network in Lyon. The 4G service will be rolled out to Montpellier on December 18 2012, followed by Lille, Strasbourg and Toulouse in the first half of 2013. SFR had originally planned to launch its 4G network in early 2013 but was able to push its schedule forward. Nokia Siemens Networks and Huawei are the suppliers for the network.

 Solutions provider CommProve has been selected by Cell C to enable the African operator to measure network performance and control customer satisfaction. The solution will be deployed in Cell C’s network by the first half of next year, and as part of the agreement, CommProve will deploy its real-time data acquisition and mediation platform on the network, as well as its software acquisition suite. Cell C is based in South Africa, and CommProve outlined the importance for it to expand into the emerging market.

 Sprint Nextel has reportedly launched LTE services in approximately 56 US markets through its regional affiliate ShenTel. The launches in areas of Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia will expand Sprint’s 4G footprint by around 735,000 people, Earle MacKenzie, CEO at ShenTel, told local media. Alcatel-Lucent is the company’s vendor of choice for its Network Vision modernisation project. Sprint also confirmed separately that it had launched LTE in eleven new markets in the north-east and mid-west, bringing its overall total to 43.