Novis selects Alcatel equipment to carry first Gigabit Ethernet service offering in Portugal

March 28, 2003--Alcatel and Novis Telecom today announced the successful delivery of Novis´ first Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) service in Portugal's main cities, Lisbon and Porto, carried on the Alcatel 1696 Metro Span Compact DWDM system.

The project significantly expands Novis´ ability to meet the growing demand for new broadband services by deploying the Alcatel 1696 Metro Span Compact, equipped with the versatile 4xAny concentrator. This feature enables the grooming of multiple services--including gigabit Ethernet, fiber channel, and ESCON/FICON--into a single SDH or SONET standard signal.

This approach brings additional security and reliability to data services in a way that is entirely compatible with current management systems and maintenance practices, say Alcatel representatives. Additionally, it allows Novis to leverage SDH capacity already in its network to offer new services, such as transparent LAN interconnect or storage area networking, without affecting existing revenue generating services.

"Novis is committed to meeting our customer demands for new broadband services, such as Gigabit Ethernet, while keeping an eye on our bottom line," asserts Pedro Carlos, chief operational officer of Novis. "The functionality offered by the Alcatel 1696 Metro Span Compact empowers our network with new service capabilities without losing sight of the need for cost competitiveness."

Since 2000, Alcatel has partnered with Novis in the development of its SDH and DWDM backbone networks. These networks, as well as the new 1696 Metro Span Compact deployments, are monitored by the Alcatel 1300 Network Management (NM) integrated network management platform already in place.