The South Georgia Governmental Services Authority (SGGSA) has selected next-generation SONET equipment from Nortel Networks for its network architecture to support a variety of education initiatives and to provide advanced telecommunications services across its four-city network.
SGGSA members--the municipalities of Cairo, Camilla, Moultrie, and Thomasville, GA--currently provide cable television and Internet access via cable modem technology over hybrid fiber coax systems. Deployment of Nortel Networks OPTera Metro 3500 next- generation SONET solution will allow the communities to expand their service offerings.
In addition to providing affordable telecommunications services and high-speed Internet access to local businesses, these new service offerings will also include implementation of an Interactive Distance Learning network serving the school districts in the four communities. SGGSA's network architecture will give businesses and educational institutions access to affordable broadband services, as well as internal applications like storage, disaster recovery, content networking, and Ethernet services.
"This technology will help to place our four rural, southwest Georgia towns on a level playing field with much larger metropolitan communities," contends Jay Powell, board chairman, SGGSA. "Our goals are simply stated-to create communities where our educational systems are second to none, our new and existing businesses thrive, and our residents enjoy an outstanding quality of life. The ability to share resources among our municipalities and across our school districts while offering local business affordable, innovative services with Nortel Networks next-generation SONET technology will be a tremendous step for our communities toward meeting these goals," he adds.
"The key benefit of Nortel Networks next-generation SONET technology is providing a cost-effective means of deploying innovative services similar to SGGSA's deployment," explains Marco Pagani, president, Metro Optical, Nortel Networks. "These solutions do not place a significant burden on capital and operational expenses. In fact, they drive reduced expenses."
Nortel Networks' OPTera Metro 3500 Mutliservice Platform offers high bandwidth management flexibility for cost-effective delivery of voice, video, and data traffic, contends the company. Using the multiservice capability of OPTera Metro 3500, service providers can implement cost-effective broadband services like Ethernet with Resilient Packet Ring (RPR). A
For more information about the Nortel Networks (Ottawa, Ontario), visit the company's Web site at www.nortelnetworks.com.