TeliaSonera says 100G opportunities with content companies, enterprises continue to ramp

TeliaSonera International Carrier (TSIC) is seeing more of its customer base scaling their demand for 100G optical wavelength services in North America.

Ivo Pascucci, head of Americas for TeliaSonera International Carrier, told FierceTelecom that the interest in 100G has become more intense the first half of this year.

"We've been seeing in the first half of this year a lot of activity in the 100 Gig space, both in IP transit and 100 Gig waves on our U.S. network," Pascucci said. "It's exciting for us because it drives fast incremental growth on the network."

While its traditional wholesale carrier and content company customers are still a priority for its 100G services, the company is seeing interest from enterprise customers, a segment that it traditionally it has not served in the U.S.

"I would say we're seeing both the big content guys and the carriers ask for 100G services," Pascucci said. "We're even seeing some enterprise customers requesting 100 Gig, which is a market we're not pursuing, but we have been receiving requests from that segment."

In North America, TSIC's U.S. network is based on fiber purchased from WilTel in the late 1990s. TSIC deployed Infinera's DTN platform to initially provide 1 Gbps and 10 Gbps wavelength services in 2009. It is leveraging Infinera's platforms to deliver the 100G services today.

To support its ongoing 100G service expansions to its North American customer base, the service provider continues to sign dark fiber indefeasible right of use (IRU) agreements with other carriers, including its latest pact with Unite Private Networks (UPN).

One area of the U.S. where it has recently moved to upgrade its fiber network is in Texas' growing DASH (Dallas-Austin-San Antonio-Houston) four-city region. TSIC is expanding its presence into the Dallas metro area by leasing UPN's dark fiber over which it will run its 100G-enabled network.

Being a symbiotic partnership, UPN will also use TSIC's long haul connectivity capability, including wavelengths and IP transit service, to meet its growing demand for global Internet access services.

"The DASH network is one of the things we're doing and we view growth and success in the North America market as a whole and that's part of the customer success and customer commitment," Pascucci said.

Part of its movement into the DASH includes building out border crossing connections to Mexico, including Laredo, McCallen and El Paso, to capitalize on new growth opportunities in that country.

"We're seeing a lot of growth coming out of Mexico with the deregulation and the overall growth in broadband penetration and demand for wholesale IP transit and transport service," Pascucci said.

For more:
- see this release

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