Fujitsu wins exclusive SDH supply contract with British Telecommunications

Fujitsu Telecommunications Europe Limited, a supplier of high performance telecommunications solutions, has been awarded an exclusive contract to supply its FBX-Access Multi-Service Synchronous Digital Hierarchy (SDH) range of equipment to British Telecommunications plc (BT), for deployment across the operator's UK network.

Already a supplier of SDH technology to BT, with FBX-Access equipment installed in some 350 sites to date, this solution provides much of BT's high-speed, high-capacity optical fibre connection to business customers. The awarding of the contract to be the sole supplier of BT's access SDH network came about following another manufacturer's decision to withdraw from the project.

BT originally stated it was to award 50 percent of its SDH business to Fujitsu in July 1998. Throughout the project, Fujitsu has fully complied with BT's development time-scales, completing first trials in September 1999 and starting full rollout in December 1999. The commercial service was launched in February 2000 and, by May 2000, Fujitsu had equipped 140 of BT's largest sites with its FBX-Access SDH solution. The new contract now involves Fujitsu in the fulfillment of all BT's access SDH requirement, deploying FBX-Access in up to 700 further sites by March 2001.

The FBX-Access Multi-Service SDH platform combines manageability and resilience, with the facilities to manage ATM/IP technology alongside legacy services. Handling a variety of network access infrastructures, both copper and fibre, FBX-Access provides the means to take fully-managed SDH services all the way to the customer, without compromising varying bandwidth requirements, network reliability or service availability.

Addressing the spectrum of network operators' access requirements for both narrowband and broadband service delivery, FBX-Access concentrates the required elements into a single platform. With its ability to support multi-port optical fibre as well as HDSL line cards in the same chassis, the product extends the benefits of SDH and DSL technology, overcoming the traditional cost limitations that resulted in SDH being viable only for the core network.

About Fujitsu Telecommunications:

Fujitsu Telecommunications Europe has research and development facilities and also operates as part of Fujitsu's global manufacturing resource, with expertise in the field of optical transmission and telecommunications switching technology.

About British Telecommunications:

British Telecommunications plc is a provider of telecommunications services and one of the largest private sector companies in Europe. Its principal activities include local, long distance and international telecommunications services, mobile communications, Internet services and IT solutions.