SANTIAGO -- Chilesat today announced the lighting of its innovative fiber optic network which employs Cisco IP+Optical networking equipment to increase capacity and brings advanced services to new and existing customers. The network has been deployed and serving live customer traffic with several months of uninterrupted service. Chilesat's new fiber optic network doubled the company's service capacity using technologies such as dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) and multiprotocol label switching (MPLS)-enabled IP, becoming the first Latin American network with these features. The new infrastructure is based on Cisco Systems' Complete Optical Multiservice Edge and Transport (COMET) optical networking equipment including the ONS 15801 and Cisco Transport Manager along with Cisco Internet Routing technologies including 12000 series 7200 series, and 7500 series Internet Routers. The project was implemented and financed by IBM, with a US$ 10 million investment. "With several months of uninterrupted service from Arica to Valvivia, Cisco's technology has enabled us to say that the results of this project are successful. We chose Cisco because of their IP+Optical networking leadership and highest caliber customer support and because of our strong confidence Cisco will continue to be a technology innovator driving new developments in networking," said Alejandro Ulloa, Chilesat's general manager. In a separate release:SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Cisco Systems, the worldwide leader in networking for the Internet, and Atlanet, an Italian fixed network telecom operator, today announced enhancements of Atlanet's IP network using new softswitch technology to help carry voice on an IP data network. Ultimately Atlanet will also be able to offer multimedia services, such as video-on-demand, across 24 points-of-presence (POPs) in its nationwide IP data network, covering a total of 40 POPs across the country. A softswitch and Cisco VoIP gateways enable enterprises to send voice and data over a single network - the Atlanet IP network - resulting in significant savings in infrastructure costs, along with new capabilities, such as forwarding voice messages on a personal computer. In addition, Atlanet can deliver high-quality voice services to business customers through the same IP connections used for private virtual networks (VPNs). "We really believe the ability to run a full range of services on our IP backbone is a competitive advantage," said Pino Donetti, Atlanet's chief technical officer "and by working with Cisco, the IP technology leaders, we were able to enhance our network to carry voice over IP with the same quality and reliability our customers are used to getting from traditional telephone networks." The project also involves Getronics, a company that specializes in system integration, and Italtel, one of the leading companies worldwide in the field of next generation solutions for multi-service integrated networks. Cisco Systems Inc.