Alcatel-Lucent lands major deal with Portugal Telecom for IP infrastructure

Telecoms equipment maker Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE: ALU [1]) says it has signed a three-year deal with Portugal Telecom to extend the capacity of its IP/MPLS network to add new video rich services for its customers.

Using Alca-Lu's High Leverage Network (HLN) architecture will allow PT to leverage an all-IP network layered with embedded intelligence and application awareness that improves end-user experience as well as PT's ability to bring new services to market more efficiently. The platform will also enable Portugal Telecom to implement 100 Gigabit Ethernet, L2/L3 mobile backhaul and IPv6 services that will guarantee available bandwidth and an expanded address space to ensure the smooth introduction of the most sophisticated services.

Alfredo Baptista, CTO of Portugal Telecom, said that while the growing popularity of video content is bringing companies like PT new opportunities, it has also demanded more expansion.

"The evolution of the existing network architecture and the full support of IPv6 and 100G, with Alcatel-Lucent's innovative approach, will give us the flexibility to cope with the growing demand for today's services and the capacity to offer exciting new services to meet our customers' needs in the future," he said.

Alcatel-Lucent will enhance PT's use of the 7750 Service Router, managed by the 5620 Service Aware Manager, to become the converged service edge for consumer Internet, IPTV and VoIP services, carrier ethernet VPNs services for enterprises and mobile backhaul services. The new, distributed architecture locates the IP service edge functionality at the edge of networks, close to subscribers, providing a significant increase in bandwidth per subscriber. Consolidation of multiple services on a converged network steamlines operations while adding flexibility to deploy new services faster. Support for 100 Gigabit etheret and IPv6 provides long term scaling to support high bandwidth and more attached devices to enable new services and business models.

Portugal Telecom provides a wide portfolio of fixed and mobile services, including broadband access, voice and television, acting in all segments of the telecommunications sector.

For more:
- see this release [2]