Ericsson and Tele2 sign contract covering axpanded bandwith

Ericsson and Tele2 sign contract covering expanded bandwidth Ericsson and Tele2 have signed a contract to expand the bandwidth in the national transport network which, for example, transports data and telephony services between cities, alternatively central points in the network. The new network will be built with products from Ericsson's ERION (Ericsson Optical Networking) product family. The ERION products are based on WDM (wave-division multiplexing) technology. This facilitates enhanced use of the existing infrastructure (fiber) through providing more colors - wavelengths - to the light that travels through the fiber. Currently, an ERION system handles more than one million parallel phone calls over a single fiber pair. With ERION technology, Tele2 gains a network which is one of the most powerful transport networks in Europe based on bandwidth. The contract is the first of its kind on the Swedish market. "An extensive upgrading of today's network is a condition for the operator to be able to offer broadband services to the homes in a large scale," says Staffan Henriksson, Vice President Customer Unit Operators at Ericsson Sverige AB. "By updating the network with ERION products, Tele2 has breached an existing barrier to new broadband services." The system can transmit different kinds of signals, for example SDH, ATM or IP, which in turn makes it possible for Tele2 to expand its network in a more flexible manner. As a result, Tele2 gains a future-proof infrastructure, which makes it possible to quickly and easily introduce new technologies and services to the network. "With Ericsson's ERION product family we will not only gain an improved network capacity, but the new infrastructure will also make it possible to deliver extended capacity to our customers quickly," says Björn Lundströ, Network Manager at Tele2. "It also leads to an increase in market shares for us in a very competitive market." When the infrastructure is in place, new wavelengths can be added very easily. Network capacity can be increased step-wise by 2.5 Gbit/s (corresponding to about 30,000 new telephone lines or Internet connections). The equipment is capable of transmitting up to 32 wavelengths and can be upgraded with minor additions to even more. "New services that are offered to the market will inevitably affect the demand on bandwidth in the transport networks," says Magnus Grenfeldt, Europe Business Area Manager-WDM at Ericsson. "With the ERION technology installed, the network can be expanded very cost effectively and without affecting existing businesses." Ericsson is the leading provider in the new telecom world, with communications solutions that combine telecom and datacom technologies with freedom of mobility for the user. With more than 100,000 employees in 140 countries, Ericsson simplifies communications for its customers - network operators, service providers, enterprises and consumers - the world over. Please visit Ericsson's Press Room at: http://www.ericsson.se/pressroom FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT Johan Wiklund, Ericsson Corporate Communications Phone: +46 70 560 0134, E-mail: johan.wiklund@lme.ericsson.se Magnus Grenfeldt, Business Area Manager Europe - WDM, EMEA Ericsson Business Unit Transmission Solutions Phone: +46 8 719 6136, +46 70 540 4358 E-mail: magnus.grenfeldt@ericsson.com Staffan Henriksson, Vice President Customer Unit Operators, Ericsson Sverige AB Phone: +46 8 579 18110, E-mail: staffan.henriksson@ese.ericsson.se Robert Hultman, Senior Vice President Corporate Communications, Tele2 AB Phone: +46 8 562 64539, E-mail: robert.hultman@tele2.se Or (for Tele2) NetCom Mediaservice +46 8 562 646 26 (24-hour service) About Tele2 Tele2 is a part of NetCom AB, which was formed in 1993. NetCom is a leading telecommunications company in Scandinavia. The Company is engaged in the GSM cellular services, operating under the brand names Comviq and Tele2Mobil in Sweden, through the listed associated company NetCom ASA in Norway and through the subsidiary Ritabell (Q GSM) in Estonia. In the areas of public telecommunications, data communication services and Internet, NetCom operates under the name Tele2 in Sweden, Tele2 A/S in Denmark and Tele2 Norge AS in Norway. NätTeknik and Datametrix are NetCom units specializing in systems integration. The NetCom Group also offers cable-TV services in Sweden through the Kabelvision company. NetCom is listed both on the Stockholm Stock Exchange under the symbols NCOMA and NCOMB and on Nasdaq under the symbol NECS. About ERION ERION is a well-proven product family based on WDM technology that has been delivered to British Telecom, Mannesmann o.tel.o, America On Line, Telefonica, Sonera and others. Wave Division Multiplexing (WDM) makes it possible for the optical fiber to carry more bandwidth through multiplexing many different wavelength frequencies (colors) onto a single strand of optical fiber. The fundamental advantage with the technology is that the fiber, as well as other parts of the infrastructure, is used in a better way. The ERION products also facilitates functions that allows the infrastructure to be protected in the optical domain. Consequently, if a cable is cut the traffic will take another route through the network. Moreover, the operator can establish ring structures using ERION products. In addition to the safety protection mentioned above, this ensures better usage and enhanced efficiency in the underlying technologies. The optical fiber is, of course, independent of what type of protocol the different individual wavelengths are carrying. This was taken into account when the system was developed, so that an ERION system can handle all available client technologies, ATM and IP as well as the more traditional transport networks such as SDH and PDH. In this respect, the ERION platform is future-proof while concurrently supporting today's technology. For further information about Ericsson's WDM technology, please see other press releases on this subject at http://www.ericsson.com/pressroom/Archive ------------------------------------------------------------ Please visit http://www.bit.se for further information The following files are available for download: http://www.bit.se/bitonline/1999/09/15/19990915BIT00650/bit0001.pdf http://www.bit.se/bitonline/1999/09/15/19990915BIT00650/bit0002.doc