Zhone helps MLL Telecom connect 600 public sector sites in Suffolk, England

Zhone Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ: ZHNE) says it has been selected by MLL Telecom to help deliver high-speed broadband services to more than 600 public sector facilities in the county of Suffolk, England.

MLL Telecom, a managed network supplier in the UK, is using Zhone's MXK and ETHX platforms for approximately two-thirds of its sites to provide Ethernet services to schools, libraries, and county council buildings. Zhone secured this deployment as a result of its partnership with UK-based systems integrator Imtech Telecom.

As the British government forges ahead with its plan to upgrade the nation's Internet infrastructure by 2015, organizations throughout the UK look for cost-effective ways to roll out faster broadband services across wide area networks. For this reason, public sector organizations turn to managed network suppliers like MLL Telecom for reliable, high-speed Ethernet services.

This new network deployment is significant because schools across the region are already consuming data at a rate equivalent to downloading 40 books every second. By using Zhone's platform to deliver 10-Mbps services over the existing copper infrastructure, the new technology provides a 5X increase in capacity, Zhone says.

"Zhone was chosen for its industry-leading access technology and high level of knowledge in the FTTx and EFM [Ethernet in the first mile] space," said Graham Keeble, head of operations for MLL Telecom. "Our objective for this project was to cost effectively deliver high-speed, reliable Ethernet services to the county of Suffolk using the existing copper infrastructure. Zhone was the perfect partner in helping us achieve this goal, because of the flexibility, scalability, and ease-of-use of its solutions."

In addition to delivering significant savings and increased capacity, the new network allows MLL Telecom to deploy fiber access services, ADSL2+/VDSL2 from the same platform in the future, if required.

For more information on FTTx/access systems and suppliers, visit the Lightwave Buyer’s Guide.