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GTS Carrier Services Partners With Cisco, CIENA To Introduce First IP - Over - DWDM Network Platform In Europe

Global TeleSystems Group, Inc. (GTS) (Nasdaq and Easdaq: GTSG) today introduced the first high-capacity transport "platform" in Europe to use both Internet Protocol (IP) and dense wave length division multiplexing (DWDM). This new IP-over-DWDM platform will be offered on GTS Carrier Services’ Hermes Europe Railtel (HER) network.

This IP-over-DWDM platform will be deployed initially in six European countries. GTS expects a controlled introduction to commence with selected customers in March. General availability is expected for later this year. By combining the IP transmission standard with DWDM technology, GTS Carrier Services expects to make more efficient use of its HER network, with the potential to increase capacity more than 10 times that of current operational IP networks.

This follows GTS’s announcement in January of a 50:50 joint venture with FLAG Telecom to build and operate the world’s first transoceanic dual cable system designed to carry voice, high-speed data and video traffic at speeds up to 1.28 terabits per second.

Gerald W. Thames, GTS’s vice chairman, president and chief executive officer, said: "The combination of our transatlantic capacity and our IP-over-DWDM platform will provide GTS with a powerful transmission capability that helps position GTS as Europe’s premier alternative telecommunications provider. Our GTS Carrier Services unit plans to offer IP-based services to carriers and ISPs located in the 50 top European business centers, with connections between any of these cities and New York, and this platform should greatly enhance those offerings."

Thames noted that GTS Access Services division has announced plans to develop fiber-based competitive local exchange carriers (CLECs) in 12 European cities over the next three years. When these operations connect to office buildings throughout Europe, GTS plans to offer IP-based services desktop-to-desktop across fiber-optic cable using, in part, the new platform.

Partnering with Cisco, Ciena

Cisco Systems International routers and Ciena Corporation’s dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) technology will support the new GTS Carrier Services offering. The IP-over-DWDM configuration on the network will also provide a new platform for HER’s recently announced IP over SDH transmission services.

As part of the introduction, HER’s Ebone subsidiary – one of the largest Internet backbone providers in Europe – will use the IP-over-DWDM infrastructure to transport its rapidly growing Internet traffic among major European capitals.

"This IP platform is designed to have the capacity to carry almost all European trans-border Internet traffic today," said Jan Loeber, president, GTS Carrier Services and managing director, HER. "The combination of the HER fiber, Cisco and Ciena equipment and technology, the existing HER fiber backbone network, and Ebone’s expertise will also assist GTS Carrier Services efforts to handle any expected growth. We are pleased to be partnering with two of the industry’s leaders in Internet enabling technology."

"It is our current plan to extend this platform across the Atlantic over the circuits HER obtains from our transatlantic FLAG Atlantic-1 joint venture announced recently between GTS Carrier Services and FLAG Telecom," added Loeber. "We believe that this new platform will help make GTS Carrier Services the premier Internet enabler in Europe with extension of this high-speed connectivity to the U.S."

"With the massive growth of IP traffic, I believe the communications industry is rethinking time division multiplexing (TDM) capabilities," said Peter Lomas, Cisco’s vice president of Service Provider Operations, EMEA. "Many operators are questioning whether traditional TDM-based networks are suited to handle this growth because they are costly and inefficient. Instead, as in the case of HER, we are seeing the emergence of the ‘Optical Internetwork’ – high-speed data optimized infrastructures that combine gigabit switching and routing with optical technologies. These optical transport networks are optimized to deliver packet-based services, as opposed to TDM-based networks, which are optimized for circuit-based switching.

"Not only are Optical Internetworking infrastructures more efficient in dealing with continued exponential growth, they are also much more cost-effective to acquire and to operate – enabling higher margins to be generated from network services," added Lomas. "Reliability, value, high-speed performance – these are the deliverables of Cisco’s New World vision, and we are very happy to be working with HER to bring such significant benefits to its customers."

"IP over WDM simplifies the network, reducing equipment and operational costs," said Gary Smith, senior vice president of Ciena’s worldwide sales. "The open architecture is designed to provide HER with the flexibility to offer many different services as well as the ability to scale the network quickly, staying ahead of the exploding growth in data and Internet services."