Alcatel-Lucent has signed a three-year frame agreement with TTCL (the Tanzania Telecommunications Company), under which it will modernise the operator’s IP/MPLS and optical transport networks.
The Alcatel-Lucent transformation will allow TTCL to meet the growing demands of its fixed and mobile access customers for efficient, high-speed, high-quality data services in preparation for the launch of 4G LTE services.
Mobile phone use in Tanzania is currently at 75 percent of the population and growing by 20 percent each year. Following an expansion in undersea cable connectivity and the launch of the National ICT Broadband Backbone, broadband has become more accessible in the country, sparking demand for data services as well as the arrival of a number of new service providers.
Alcatel-Lucent will deploy its IP routing and 100G agile optical networking (AON) DWDM technology to transform TTCL’s operations, converging fixed and mobile access on to one network, with unified management across the IP and optical layers for improved efficiencies. This will allow TTCL to meet the bandwidth needs of its 300,000 fixed network subscribers – even as data traffic increases with the expected deployment of a 4G LTE network – with high-quality, affordable services.
Phase One of the Nationwide deployment – covering major cities including the capital of Dodoma and the financial centre of Dar Es Salaam – will be completed in December 2015. Alcatel-Lucent is also providing comprehensive training and professional services expertise including site survey, design, installation, testing and commissioning activities as well as migrating services to the new platform.
Under a three year frame-agreement Alcatel-lucent is transforming TTCL’s IP/MPLS and optical transport network. The company will deploy its 7750 Service Router family, 7210 Service Access Switch, and 7705 Service Aggregation Router for routing and aggregation functionality in the core, metro and access network, and its 1830 Photonic Service Switch, for OTN (optical transport network) and DWDM (dense wavelength division multiplexing) functionality. Unified network management will be provided by Alcatel-Lucent’s 5620 Service Aware Manager for exceptional operational efficiencies.
The technology will be deployed nationwide, initially in the major cities of Dodoma, Dar es Salaam, Arusha, Morogoro, and Mwanza.
Dr Kamugisha Kazaura, CEO of TTCL, comments: “Working with Alcatel-Lucent and leveraging its state of the art IP and optical transport technology as well as expertise we can enable new network efficiencies that will allow us to both meet the growing demands of our customers and help contribute to the development of ICT in Tanzania.”
Daniel Jaeger, vice-president of Alcatel-Lucent in Africa, adds: “The contract with TTCL is a significant one for the region and highlights Alcatel-Lucent’s continued momentum in the IP and optical space. With deep-rooted expertise and technology that has been proven in customer networks around the globe, we are in an ideal position to help meet the network convergence needs of customers such as TTCL.”
