Marconi to Build Telecom Italia Net

PITTSBURGH -- Marconi (LONDON: MNI), a global provider of advanced communications solutions, today announced it will supply Telecom Italia Wireline Services -- Telecom Italia's business unit for fixed telecommunications and Internet services for business users -- with its next generation SmartPhotoniX Dense Wave Division Multiplexing (DWDM) equipment, which is capable of boosting Telecom Italia's available bandwidth by as much as 40 times and increasing traffic throughput by 4 times, from 2.5Gbps to 10Gbps. The two-year contract, worth more than about $200 million, is the latest in a series of major optical technology wins for Marconi inside the last few weeks, including customers such as British Telecom, Belgacom, Telfort in the Netherlands, and Fibernet and VIAG in Germany.

"This agreement and the level of confidence from one of the world's largest, most advanced carriers is a huge endorsement of the power of Marconi's optical technology," said Peter Brown, president, Europe/Middle East/Africa, for Marconi. "The choice of Marconi leading edge photonics systems and SDH (Synchronous Digital Hierarchy) transmission equipment will ensure Telecom Italia has the power and flexibility to develop the applications and services that will meet the needs of tomorrow's bandwidth- hungry users."

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