Asia Netcom completed the deployment of Lucent’s LambdaUnite Multi-Service Switch (MSS) in its pan-Asian submarine cable network, EAC. The upgrade project, carried out over a period of six months, will enhances Asia Netcom’s ability to deliver next-generation bandwidth services with a variety of advanced transport and connectivity solutions in the Asia Pacific region.
With the LambdaUnite MSS platform and its support for ASON (Automatically Switched Optical Networks)/GMPLS (Generalized Multi-Protocol Label Switching) technology, Asia Netcom will be able to adopt a meshed, network architecture on the optical layer, and offer a wide variety of “Class-of-Service” options as part of its optical transport services. At the same time, the LambdaUnite MSS platform’s enhanced management system gives Asia Netcom full control of all network elements, resulting in seamless service provisioning and network management of EAC.
“This was one of the most complicated and challenging engineering projects in the history of Asia Netcom,” noted Bill Barney, Asia Netcom’s President and CEO. “We crossed the finish line ahead of schedule and with minimal impact to customers.”http://www.asianetcom.comhttp://www.lucent.com
- In June 2006, China Netcom agreed to sell all of its Asia Netcom assets to an investor group led by Ashmore Emerging Markets Liquid Investment Portfolio and also including Spinnaker Global Opportunity Fund Limited and Clearwater Capital Partners, for approximately US$402 million. Completion of the deal is conditioned on regulatory approvals.
- In March 2006, Asia Netcom completed a major network upgrade that will bring a 50% increase in lit capacity to its pan-Asia submarine cable systems, EAC. As part of the upgrade, 10 Gbps was lit up on each of EAC’s four fiber pairs, effectively adding 40 Gbps of new bandwidth to EAC’s existing 80 Gbps.
- Asia Netcom’s EAC spans 19,500 kilometers and connects Japan, Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Philippines, and Singapore. EAC will soon extend into China through a new cable extension to the northern Chinese city of Qingdao.