51° secures Ethernet contract with LambdaNet
3 February 2003 -- London-based telecoms infrastructure business 51° has secured an Ethernet contract with Hanover-based LambdaNet Communications.
Following deals with Gamma Telecom, Omnetica and Neos Networks, Lambdanet will also be using 51°'s Ethernet platform to connect customers. With a 22,000km-long fibre and IP network connecting 104 cities in 10 different countries servicing more than 180 customers, LambdaNet claims to operate one of the most closely woven fibre and IP networks in Europe. It provides services to network carriers, mobile carriers, ISPs, ASPs, system integrators, media companies and large corporations that seek to broaden their customer base without having to deploy their own infrastructure.
LambdaNet Communications' chief operating officer Mikel Williams says: "We chose 51° for three main reasons: firstly, their local access solution meets our high-quality specifications. Secondly, they were incredibly responsive to our needs, and thirdly, our joint product set is very complementary and will now allow LambdaNet to offer the best solutions to customers' requirements."
"Now that our metro Ethernet core network is live and operational - with Finsbury Market and West Ham now integrated - we can bring customer connectivity points even closer to the customer premises," said 51ºs sales manager Stuart Davidson-Wright. "This means that customers like Lambdanet are being offered an even more scalable and resilient service."
51° was launched in December 2001. Its backbone network consists of a 60km fibre-optic central ring that is supported by 80km of additional spurs and loops reaching into some of London's busiest commercial and residential areas. 51°'s access to LE Group's property portfolio of 17,000 London sites presents co-location opportunities for telecoms equipment, as well as the siting of cell-sites for mobile network coverage.
LambdaNet operates metro area networks in 11 European centers of business - London, Amsterdam, Brussels, Paris, Marseille, Lyon, Madrid, Vienna, Frankfurt, Düsseldorf and Hamburg.
It offers traditional transport services (wavelength, bandwidth and collocation services) and delivers higher value services that include advanced IP transport (IP Transit, Virtual Private Networks).
* 51° has launched its Gig E Lite metropolitan Gigabit Ethernet service, with a special introductory pricing of GBP10,000 for installation and GBP8,000 rental until 30 April.
The new service, designed for companies with variable bandwidth needs at different times of the day, has a maximum contention ratio of 8:1, providing guaranteed input of 112Mbit/s/s and the ability to support speeds of up to 1,000Gbit/s/s. 51º will continue to offer its existing uncontended metro Ethernet service, priced at GBP20,000 for installation and GBP25,000 rental within central London.
"This new, scalable service will be attractive to companies that have a variable need for bandwidth, but don't need Gig E availability 24 hours a day, and therefore don't wish to pay the higher associated price," says sales and marketing director Barry Bullen. "By making an introductory offer to our customers, companies with high bandwidth requirements will realise that powerful and flexible Gig E solutions are not only imperative to their business, but highly affordable too."
Gig E Lite is based on 51º's metro Ethernet over Multi Protocol Label Switching (EoMPLS) and IEEE 802.1Q Tunnelling (Cisco QinQ) Network. 51° says that it is the first to be deployed to live customers in Europe, operating directly onto physically diverse fibre conforming to ITU-T G.652. The network does not use any transmission systems so there is no need for protocol encapsulation.
Customers have truly transparent pipes across a switched routed network using MPLS, 802.1Q tunnelling and multiple switches/routers strategically located throughout London, providing a resilient network.
Gig E Lite is offered at 51º's PoP locations throughout London and is extended over its "on net" capability including Redbus 1, TeleCity 2, Global Switch 1, Global Switch 2, Telehouse North, Telehouse East, IX Europe, L3 Goswell Road, L3 Braham Street, City Lifeline and Telecity 1.