Turkey’s Türk Telekom has deployed Alcatel-Lucent’s (Euronext Paris and NYSE: ALU) 7950 Extensible Routing Platform (XRS) in its core IP network, the systems vendor says.

The service provider operates more than 13.5 million access lines and serves 7.4 million ultra-broadband subscribers. The new routers, deployed in three major locations in Istanbul and in Ankara, will help Türk Telekom keep pace with the growing bandwidth demands of its residential and business customers, offering the ability to support more than a hundred Gigabit Ethernet interfaces on its backbone. The deployment also saw a “consolidation of existing core routers,” Alcatel-Lucent added.

The router roll out is the latest use Türk Telekom has made of Alcatel-Lucent equipment (see, for example, "Turk Telekom taps Alcatel-Lucent for ASON/GMPLS-based optical network").

“Alcatel-Lucent has had a longstanding relationship with Türk Telekom,” said Amr K. El-Leithy, head of Alcatel-Lucent’s META region. “The industry-leading capacity, efficiency and service features of the 7950 XRS will provide Türk Telekom with the core routing platform needed to meet its growing IP traffic demand for years to come, while keeping operating costs in check.”

For more information on core routers and suppliers, visit the Lightwave Buyer’s Guide.