OTTAWA -- Vermont Electric Power Company (VELCO), the Rutland-based transmission company owned by 22 distribution utilities in Vermont, has completed statewide deployment of Optical Ethernet solutions from Nortel Networks.

Using Nortel Networks OPTera Metro 3500 Multiservice Platforms with Resilient Packet Ring (RPR) technology, VELCO has converged data and voice services over the same infrastructure. By leveraging the reliability and high-bandwidth of SONET with the simplicity and low-cost of Ethernet, VELCO's Optical Ethernet deployment is expected to enhance day-to-day operations while helping VELCO to drive high reliability and resiliency for mission-critical power services.

Additionally, the broadband connections now available at each utility substation give VELCO the ability to support new, high-bandwidth applications to enhance employee productivity, reduce time-to-service, improve information sharing and make better use of network assets.

"With the increased bandwidth available through our Optical Ethernet network, we have increased our ability to gather information and understand business - without impacting the performance of our critical systems," said Dan Nelson, head of Information Systems and Telecommunications, VELCO. "As a result, we have improved our ability to share information, reduced the risk of service impacting outages, and improved the efficiency of our network."

Delivering power services throughout the state, VELCO's interest is to help service its community members. With the network that has been put in place, VELCO also has the opportunity to further improve the quality of life for Vermont residents by making broadband services available and affordable to state agencies like police and public safety organizations.

"Optical Ethernet solutions are giving utility companies like VELCO the opportunity to leverage their network assets to support new applications and explore new service offerings - all while driving reduced costs and reduced network complexity," said Marco Pagani, president, Optical Ethernet and Storage Solutions, Nortel Networks. "With the Optical Ethernet solution in place, VELCO will see an increase of available bandwidth, allowing them to improve on traditional utility functions while offering new services like Internet access, video surveillance, high-speed remote access and digital image transfer, just to name a few."

Nortel Networks Corp.