17 December 2003 Toronto, Ontario Lightwave -- Bell Canada has added to its growing Internet Protocol (IP) arsenal with the addition of Nortel Networks' optical network technology, which allows greater amounts of voice and data to travel at greater speeds over the Internet all at lower costs. Bell Canada says it plans to invest CDN$170-million over two years in Nortel technology to help ensure that Canada is a leader in the emerging IP world.
"Optical technology truly mines the potential of the Internet to provide an entirely new world of products and services to our customers," contends Eugene Roman, group president, Systems and Technology for Bell Canada. "Bell's optical network will evolve seamlessly from a voice and data circuit based facility toward a more packet-based network. There will be no impact on existing services and we anticipate rolling out our optical network enhancements in 2004," he reports.
Bell Canada and Nortel Networks will also create an Optical Innovation Centre in Montreal. The Centre will accelerate the deployment of new IP-oriented optical solutions. It is expected to be operational in the first quarter of 2004.
"The Innovation Centre will focus on initiatives that lower deployment costs, improve the speed to market of next generation products and services, and simplify their introduction to customers," adds Roman.
Brian McFadden, president, Optical Networks, Nortel Networks, says the agreement is designed to enable Bell to deliver on its promise of simplicity to customers. "Nortel Networks is committed to developing optical technology that transforms the network by removing boundaries to efficiency, productivity, and growth with long-term investment protection. Our end-to-end optical networking portfolio is designed to help service providers simplify their networks and offer revenue generation services more quickly and efficiently."
The announcement is another milestone in Bell's focused initiative to accelerate the delivery of hosted IP telephony and multimedia services. Earlier this year, Bell Canada announced its plans to invest $200 million over three years in Nortel Networks IP technology.
Bell will use Nortel Networks end-to-end Optical Networks portfolio, which consists of photonics, SONET/SDH, and optical switching, all supported by network management functionality for ease of operation and maintenance. Specific products include Nortel's OPTera Connect HDX optical switch, which allows service providers to increase the capacity of the networks, and Optical Multiservice Edge 6500, a platform that brings together multiple services and network layers onto a single device.