Alcatel enhances Indian telecom network

July 12, 2006 Paris, France -- Alcatel has successfully completed a 5,000-km extension of the existing optical multi-service telecommunications transport network of RAILTEL Corp. of India, a subsidiary of Indian Railways. This network enhancement supports RAILTEL's operational and business communication requirements, such as secure voice, video, and data traffic transmission. The enhancements should enable RAILTEL to provide performance, efficiency, and quality of service benefits for its customers, as well as competitively offer wholesale bandwidth to other telecom operators and enterprises.

The extension project, which was awarded through Punjab Communications, an Indian telecom and IT equipment and solutions provider, follows the successful implementation of the 11,000-km backbone network to support multimedia communications among RAILTEL's sites throughout India. Existing and new mission-critical business applications, supported by Gigabit Ethernet-based connectivity, are delivered over a single, converged platform that enables reliable, real-time access to monitoring and control information.

"Transportation companies are increasingly requested to enhance their optical transport networks to introduce new data applications for advanced traffic monitoring," said Romano Valussi, president of Alcatel's optical networking activities. "Alcatel has the portfolio and project management expertise to deliver tailored solutions that fit the requirements of vertical markets for mission-critical applications and business efficiency."

Alcatel supplied its Optical Multi-Service Node (OMSN) systems, managed by the Alcatel 1350 management suite.