Telstra is giving its network services in Asia Pacific a boost, with a dramatic increase in fibre capacity to its subsea infrastructure, following an alliance with Infinera.
Telstra’s subsea cable network in the Asia Pacific reaches more than 400,000km – which is enough to circle the world almost 10 times. As part of an ongoing partnership, Infinera’s fourth-generation Infinite Capacity Engine 4 (ICE4) optical engine is being rolled out across this subsea infrastructure, with the aim of increasing the capacity, agility and reliability of the network.
The companies calculated that ICE4 will increase Telstra’s fibre capacity by 160 per cent, with a 140 per cent increase in port density. Power consumption, meanwhile, is decreased, allowing Telstra to continually improve network services.
Telstra’s network planning principal, Andy Lumsden, said that the company is committed to continual network development to support the increasing demand for data right across the Asia Pacific region. He said: ‘Our commitment to our Asia Pacific customers means we are always adapting and creating capacity where it is needed. With Infinera’s ICE4 optical engine, we are deploying the latest technology across our network. We can now provision new services faster than ever before, which is critical in a region when capacity demand on our international networks has almost doubled over the past two years.’
Early testing on the rollout has delivered strong results, according to Infinera’s vice president of sales, Andrew Bond-Webster. ‘ICE4, our latest optical engine, enables Telstra to deliver multi-terabit capacity cost effectively with low power consumption and with the reliability required for subsea networks to perform,’ he said.
The network upgrade is due to be completed in the coming months, and is the latest in a line of investments in the market for Telstra. The company also recently announced a new rapid restoration service on its busiest subsea cable routes in the region (see Telstra launches rapid restoration service, invests in Asia Pacific).
Infinera, meanwhile, recently showcased the next step function in its ICE performance, having partnered with Telia Carrier to demonstrate real-time transmission of 600Gb/s wavelengths in a live production network (see Telia Carrier, Infinera partner to demonstrate real-time 600Gb/s transmission in live production network).