Deutsche Telekom and Lucent Technologies extend contract for optical networking equipment
October 7, 2002--Lucent Technologies today announced that it has extended an existing contract with Deutsche Telekom (Bonn, Germany) for optical transmission technology until the end of 2003.
This one-year extension of a two-year contract introduces new products, including the Lucent's optical transport system and switch, LambdaUnite MSS, into the Deutsche Telekom network. In 2000, Deutsche Telekom awarded Lucent a two-year contract to supply an optical network to help the carrier meet its business and residential customers' growing bandwidth demand for data applications.
The extended contract also covers the introduction of the latest generation of SDH multiplexers, which are available with an Ethernet transport solution. This feature will help Deutsche Telekom offer its business customers end-to-end Ethernet transport services.
"The contract represents a continuation of the long-term strategic partnership between Deutsche Telekom and Lucent Technologies, and underscores our commitment to the optical networking market," said Hans Huber, president and chief executive of Lucent's InterNetworking Systems business in Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. "There always will be demand for innovative products even in difficult market conditions. This especially holds true when the products enable network operators to offer new, profitable services, or when they enable service providers to manage their networks more cost effectively."
After triaing the technology, Deutsche Telekom implemented several units of LambdaUnite MSS into its network. Developed by Bell Labs, LambdaUnite MSS bridges traffic between data-intense metro networks and high-speed optical core networks, connecting cities, campuses and corporate networks to larger, long-haul public networks. The product supports both SONET/SDH, enables service providers to upgrade their networks to 40 Gbits/sec and allows them to deliver services such as Gigabit Ethernet. For more information visit Lucent's Web site at http://www.lucent.com.