Windstream Wholesale, Colt Technology Services and Nokia conduct transatlantic 800GbE trial
Windstream Wholesale, Colt Technology Services (Colt), and Nokia have collaborated on completing an 800 Gigabit Ethernet (800GbE) service trial connecting London with Chicago over an 8500km subsea and terrestrial route over the production network.
The trial showcased power-saving networking technologies from the three global tech businesses to test the boundaries of next-generation wavelength, capacity, speed and latency between two of the world’s largest financial trading hubs.
During the field trial, Colt connected one of its five Transatlantic subsea cables and part of its terrestrial fiber network with Windstream Wholesale’s domestic U.S. low latency optical fiber Intelligent Converged Optical Network (ICON) monitoring speed and performance.
A collaborative effort
Colt and Windstream Wholesale have partnered to demonstrate a transoceanic 800-gigabit ethernet (GbE) end-to-end service transport from router to router over 1 Tbps optical transport.
The trial was delivered using Nokia’s sixth-generation Photonic Service Engine (PSE-6s) coherent optics and 7750 Service Router (SR) high-performance routing platforms. These platforms boost internet service speeds and support ultra-high wavelength capacity while maintaining power efficiency.
While still in its early innings, the service provider industry sees 800G technology as the next phase of service bandwidth, doubling capacity to support advanced network applications like AI data center networking, content delivery networks, and financial data hub connections.
Following the successful trial completion, the three companies are currently exploring options to bring 800GbE connectivity services to the market for global business customers.
Joe Scattareggia, president of Windstream Wholesale, said, “Windstream Wholesale and our partners are establishing 800GbE as the next evolutionary advancement increase for wave services.”
Scaling up
Colt and Windstream have continued to enhance their standing in the wholesale and business service sectors and this partnership will undoubtedly leverage those collective capabilities.
Last November, Colt Technology Services acquired Lumen’s EMEA business for $1.8 billion.
A significant element of that acquisition is fiber network assets.
Colt gained 1.6 million kilometers of fiber, connecting 125 European cities in 34 EMEA countries. It also bolstered its submarine cable standing with 12 cable landing stations in six countries and ten submarine cable systems—six transatlantic and four within Europe.
Likewise, Windstream Wholesale has continued expanding its U.S. and international network.
A key focus for Windstream Wholesale has been partnerships similar to its with Colt.
Windstream Wholesale has allied with Mid-Atlantic Broadband, Tilson Infrastructure, and SummitIG to extend the dark fiber offering north from Raleigh to Richmond and Ashburn, Va.
Later, it expanded its Beach Route Dark Fiber Alliance to the growing Miami market, deepening its dark fiber facilities.
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Sean Buckley
Sean is responsible for establishing and executing the editorial strategies of Lightwave and Broadband Technology Report across their websites, email newsletters, events, and other information products.