UK-provider SURF Telecoms taps Nortel for network upgrade

Dec. 3, 2008
DECEMBER 4, 2008 -- Western Power Distribution Group company, SURF Telecoms, is using Nortel's '40G ready' optical networking equipment to add capacity on its regional optical network.

DECEMBER 4, 2008 -- Western Power Distribution Group company, SURF Telecoms, is using Nortel's (search for Nortel) '40G ready' optical networking equipment to add capacity on its regional optical network.

SURF Telecoms is a southwest and Wales-based supplier of managed services, including dark optical fibre, carrier wholesale bandwidth, and leased lines. The enhanced optical network from Nortel will address the growing demand for high-capacity services in the southwest of the UK, says SURF Telecom.

The express network, due to come into service this month, will help SURF Telecoms activate and deliver services rapidly and efficiently across the southwest. The network upgrade also extends the efficiency of SURF Telecoms' existing WDM networks and operations by aggregating more traffic onto 10G before regional transport, say Nortel representatives.

Nortel says its equipment can help SURF Telecoms get up to four times the existing capacity when required by simply plugging 40G transponders into the existing Optical Multiservice Edge 6500 terminals on the SURF Telecoms optical network.
In the UK, the exodus from cities to rural areas is continuing with people seeking an improved work-to-life balance and teleworking becoming a growing trend. Opting out of the city commute is one thing, but sacrificing the convenience of fast, modern communications isn't an option for most. For many, it is the ease and availability of modern communications in rural and semi-rural areas that provides the opportunity to live and work in these communities.

SURF Telecoms says its express network is aimed at helping its service provider customers meet increasing consumer demand for bandwidth-hungry applications such as Internet television, high-definition programming, and maintaining high service levels generated by rapidly growing business network traffic.

SURF Telecoms customers include communications providers, broadband ISPs and broadcasters, systems integrators, communications-intensive businesses, utilities, corporate sector business, and the education and health sectors.

"Our customers demand more bandwidth everyday," reports Steve Blew, commercial manager of SURF Telecoms. "They want to use our services to deliver faster Internet access, high-quality video streaming, and the ability to support higher bandwidth business services and applications. Nortel's solution is simplicity itself in that it enabled us to continue to use SURF Telecoms existing network assets, increase network capacity, and speed up service delivery across the whole of our region," he continues. "Our network investment is protected too, as by using 40G transponders, we can simply scale the existing network to four times the bandwidth capacity without any network re-engineering."

"SURF Telecoms is upgrading its network to ensure its customers can ride the building UK bandwidth wave," adds Peter Newcombe, president of carrier networks at Nortel. "The Nortel solution delivers competitive advantage by adding a highly scalable express layer across its existing optical networks cost-effectively, optimising management processes and increasing network capacity quickly. As a result, there are no bottlenecks, and all investments are protected well into the future."

The SURF Telecoms express network is built with the Nortel Optical Multiservice Edge (OME) 6500 optical convergence platform and Common Photonic Layer (CPL) line system with ROADM, key products that enable the migration to a more agile, adaptive, all-optical network.

Additionally, Nortel says its Optical Network Manager is being used by SURF Telecoms to conduct network wide administration, monitoring, and planning from a single management centre. This enables rapid troubleshooting, fault resolution, and traffic management with no need for technical personnel to visit individual network nodes.


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