TMCnet News
SaskTel Taps Alcatel to Enhance Triple-Play ServicesTMCnet Contributing Editor French technology provider Alcatel announced on Thursday that Canadian telecom SaskTel has selected Alcatel’s (News - Alert) triple-play offering in order to enhance its Internet and entertainment services across the province of Saskatchewan. The new project is reportedly valued at CDN $35 million, and its deployment was set to begin in the second quarter of this year.
SaskTel’s Max Entertainment Services currently include high-speed Internet access, television, radio and music channels access, as well as Video on Demand (VoD). The new deal will enable SaskTel to deploy Alcatel’s IP portfolio and access solutions as part of its Next Generation Access Infrastructure initiative to provide bandwidth of up to 40 Mbps and enable new services such as high definition TV and VoIP. Alcatel’s offering will also allow SaskTel to converge its business and consumer services onto a single next generation IP infrastructure. “By leveraging Alcatel’s IP and broadband technology, SaskTel can offer even more advanced business and entertainment services to our customers,” said SaskTel’s president and CEO Robert Watson in a statement. “Implementing Alcatel’s leading- edge solutions gives us the business and technology tools we need to compete and to offer subscribers a full slate of converged services, everything from high definition TV to VPN to VoIP.” The Alcatel offering is comprised of its 7750 Service Router and 7450 Ethernet Service Switch, and will be managed by the Alcatel 5620 Service Aware Manager (SAM). SaskTel will also deploy the Alcatel 7330 ISAM fiber-to-the-node (FTTN), which supports VDSL2 technology to address high bandwidth applications such as HDTV. The Alcatel 5526 Access Management System (AMS) will provide remote network support, provisioning, database backup and performance monitoring. SaskTel will also deploy Alcatel's iNSIGHT Service Assurance solution to provide enhanced end-to-end customer service assurance across the entire network. “SaskTel is a leading communications service provider who is a pioneer in entertainment and Internet service delivery in Canada, and we look forward to playing a key role in this initiative,” said Hubert de Pesquidoux, president of Alcatel’s North American activities. “With the support of Alcatel, SaskTel customers will have greater access to an even broader variety of entertainment and business services.” Alcatel made news last month when it announced that it was chosen by Naya Tel of Pakistan to supply the region’s first fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) system to deliver high bandwidth triple-play services to over 30,000 subscribers in the capital city of Islamabad. Naya Tel is an alternate service provider. With Alcatel’s system in place, the provider will be able to offer voice, video and data services. SaskTel Alcatel
http://www.alcatel.com
-------- Johanne Torres is contributing editor for TMCnet and Internet Telephony magazine. To see more articles by Johanne Torres, please visit Johanne Torres’ columnist page. |