Alcatel-Lucent inks deal with Australia's Nextgen Networks

JUNE 5, 2007 -- Alcatel-Lucent (search for Alcatel-Lucent) has signed contracts with a value of approximately 25 million Euros with Nextgen Networks, a specialist provider of high-quality data services in Australia. Alcatel-Lucent will supply WDM, SDH, and Ethernet/MPLS equipment and provide network operation center (NOC) services for Nextgen Network's optical network.

Nextgen Networks says it will be able to deliver optical access to new areas and offer new services to Australian businesses, all with improved efficiency and cost-effectiveness. To support Nextgen Networks' plans, Alcatel-Lucent will deploy its optical networking portfolio, including a suite of network operations services.

According to Alcatel-Lucent representatives, the vendor also will provide network management for the optical domain from its Global Network Operations Center (GNOC) in Sydney, Australia, providing round-the-clock support and service provisioning for best-in-class network operations with dramatic savings in operational expenditures.
"This new multi-year contract with Nextgen Networks is a vote of confident in Alcatel-Lucent's strong delivery, deployment, and network operations capabilities," contends John Meyer, president of Alcatel-Lucent's services activities.

Nextgen Networks owns and operates Australia's third longest optical fiber network, which spans some 8,500 km linking major and regional cities, as well as a national data network. With Alcatel-Lucent's optical portfolio, Nextgen Network will offer its customers the benefits of Ethernet-based applications for voice, video, and data services. All these services will leverage the optical and Ethernet/MPLS-based infrastructures previously deployed by Alcatel-Lucent, thus minimizing total cost of network ownership, says the carrier.

"This upgrade and extension project provides a strong foundation for our growth in the Australian market as next-generation multimedia service delivery is creating a demand for greater and greater capacity on our transport network," explains Peter Harrison, general manager of Nextgen Networks. "The Alcatel-Lucent solution will further enhance the flexibility and reliability to efficiently address this demand, while speeding return on investment."

Alcatel-Lucent's optical offering will be based on SDH and WDM technologies. Alcatel-Lucent will supply its Metropolis AMS, AMU, and ADM Multi-Service Mux-Universal SDH multiplexers, and its LambdaUnite optical multi-service switch, enabling traffic switching from 10 Gbits/sec to 2 Mbits/sec. To transport the traffic over long distance, Alcatel-Lucent will continue to deploy its WaveStar OLS 800G and Metropolis Wavelength Services Manager (WSM) WDM systems.

These new contracts follow Nextgen Networks' launch of Australia's first national Ethernet Virtual Private LAN Service (VPLS) network based on the Alcatel-Lucent 7750 Service Router.

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