Alcatel Builds H3G's DWDM Backbone

PARIS -- Alcatel (Paris: CGEP.PA and NYSE: ALA), the world leader in optical networking and point-to-point microwave radios, today announced it has signed a multi-million Euro frame agreement with H3G, a subsidiary of Hong Kong’s Hutchison Whampoa, one of the world’s leading operators of telecommunications and Internet infrastructures – to implement H3G’s backbone and metropolitan transmission networks in Italy. Under the terms of the agreement, Alcatel will supply its DWDM and SDH multi-service transport systems, as well as its new generation of SDH microwave radio systems, on a turn-key basis. Their deployment will secure H3G’s transmission platform the degree of flexibility required to support a wide range of broadband and UMTS-based services, while maximizing savings in network’s total cost of ownership.Spanning about 6,000 km from Turin in the North to Palermo in the South of Italy, the national backbone will deploy Alcatel’s DWDM system – supporting up to 32 channels working up to 10Gbit/s - and SDH Optical Multi-Service Node (OMSN) systems. OMSNs for metro applications, together with Alcatel’s SDH high-capacity urban microwave radio systems, will also be implemented in the metro rings planned in the major Italian cities. H3G’s overall network will be supervised by Alcatel’s unified network management solution, able to monitor both SDH fiber and radio as well as DWDM transport infrastructures.“The agreement with Alcatel is another step in our strategy to carry out high-quality infrastructures and technological platforms. Joined with the exclusive content we have acquired, it will let is present a winning offer to the market,” said Bob Fuller, H3G’s CEO.Alcatel SAHutchison Whampoa Ltd.