Telecom Egypt Upgrades Its Delta Backbone Network

PRESS RELEASE -- Nokia today announced that Telecom Egypt has adopted Nokia's Photonic Service Engine (PSE) technology to double backbone capacity on its Delta Region DWDM backbone network. Commercial deployment of the new high-speed service started in June and represents the first 200G long distance, single carrier transmission service in Africa.

With growth in demand for mobile video and ultra broadband services, Telecom Egypt worked closely with its partner Nokia to upgrade its current Nokia 1830 PSS backbone network. The network capacity increase brings higher-rate broadband services to fixed customers, as well as higher data rates for LTE mobile subscribers. Upgrading its existing Nokia PSS 1830 switches with Nokia's PSE technology enables Telecom Egypt to double its capacity while reducing operating costs.

Telecom Egypt is upgrading its backbone network using the Nokia 500G DWDM Muxponder, a programmable card that provides wavelength capacities from 50G to 250G per line port. Based on Nokia's Photonic Service Engine (PSE) coherent digital signal processor, this programmability will allow Telecom Egypt to provision and tune the wavelength capacity per optical route to ensure that its network is operated at peak performance, capacity and lowest cost-per-gigabit.

Ahmed El-Beheiry, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer for Telecom Egypt, said: "Doubling capacity on our existing backbone allows us to offer high-speed broadband and LTE services in addition to 100GE services for mobile operators, while reducing costs. As our long-term partner, we are confident that Nokia's proven optical network technology will help us maintain our leadership position in offering the latest and best-in-class technology solutions to our customers."

Amr El-Leithy, head of the MEA Market for Nokia, said: "We are proud to be part of this groundbreaking agreement for the continent. We have a longstanding partnership with Telecom Egypt and are pleased to see the growth in demand for both their broadband and LTE services. This is exactly what we had in mind when we designed the 1830 PSS platform. Its flexibility and easy upgradability will allow them to proactively manage the data explosion and develop new revenue streams - all the while improving the experience for their customers."

ENDS