STOCKHOLM -- Ericsson will provide Belgacom, the largest Belgian operator, with nationwide DWDM* infrastructure for inter-city links. Under a three year frame contract worth 30m Euro, Ericsson will support the implemention and maintenance of the network.The new network, based on Ericsson’s ERION optical networking solutions,will support the nationwide Belgian backbone, providing significantly greater capacity to meet the demands of an increasing number of services. Initially, Ericsson will implement 17 links between large cities with high traffic concentration. The contract includes the supply, implementation and 10 years of hardware and software support. These will enable a drastic capacity increase in the current network from currently a single channel to 32 channels each capable of carrying up to 10 Gigabits of mixed traffic types such as Internet, IP, SDH, ATM and Gigabit Ethernet.

“This contract is important for the expansion of our backbone network to cater for future growth. We intend to deliver more diverse, faster and more reliable services using Ericsson’s DWDM solutions,” said Johan Luystermans, Director Technology and Process Management, Belgacom.

http://www.ericsson.com/datacom/news/press_room/releases/20001204-0010.shtml