Ciena GeoMesh to help integrate networks at Telecom Egypt

Telecom Egypt is deploying Ciena’s GeoMesh solution and packet-optical platforms for reliable, low-latency connectivity to meet surging demands for high-bandwidth services on its national terrestrial network and submarine links between the Mediterranean and Asia. With a more agile and scalable network, Telecom Egypt’s wholesale carrier, service provider, internet content provider and consortium customers will be able to provide diverse data transit routes for international datacentre interconnect DCI, disaster recovery, cloud-based services, and other high-capacity services for enterprise and consumer end-customers.

With more than 160 years of operational history, Telecom Egypt is the largest provider of fixed line services in the Middle East and Africa. Telecom Egypt offers a complete range of international telecommunications services, including voice, data, dark fiber, colocation and tailored data solutions. Its unique geographic location spans about 1,000 km on the Red Sea and 1,000 km on the Mediterranean Sea, and connects more than seventeen cable systems through seven diversified routes and five landing stations across Egypt.

A key benefit of the Ciena-enabled mesh restoration of interconnected terrestrial and submarine networks is that Telecom Egypt can extend its offerings with a suite of extremely robust, diverse, high-availability networking services that can survive unexpected hardware and fiber route failures. Ciena’s GeoMesh also allows Telecom Egypt to proactively resolve unexpected issues and maintain network reliability.

Ciena’s 6500 and 5430 packet-optical platforms, powered by WaveLogic Extreme coherent optics, allows Telecom Egypt to offer a diverse mix of services over high-capacity wavelengths; supporting any type of traffic, including fully transparent optical transport networks OTN, virtual private networks VPN, optical VPN and Ethernet services, all with stringent SLAs. The advanced performance monitoring and testing capabilities from Ciena enables fast service turn up and ability to address faults quickly and easily.

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“Ciena’s technology and mesh network give us a real advantage, ensuring greater reliability and efficiencies. With Ciena enabling more granular high-bandwidth services our customers can evolve their networks and transition to a much wider suite of resilient, scalable connectivity options. Telecom Egypt is also ready to embrace upcoming technologies, like network functions virtualisation,” said Tamer Gadalla, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Telecom Egypt.

“Telecom Egypt truly sits at the heart of the African and Middle Eastern telecommunications markets. With Ciena’s industry-leading submarine solutions, Telecom Egypt is making the most of its unique geographical position and strategic network assets, enhancing both reliability and the end-user experience. Cost-effective, scalable and competitive connectivity also enables Telecom Egypt to launch new, next-generation data services across this critical route,” said Gary Smith, President and Chief Executive Officer of Ciena.

Telecom Egypt has also expanded the range of services from Intelsat. Intelsat, operator of globalised network powered by its satellite backbone, announced that Telecom Egypt reaffirmed its commitment to Intelsat satellite solutions to support communications services in the country.

Under a multi-year agreement, Telecom Egypt, the country’s incumbent telecommunications operator and the largest communication network in Egypt, will use connectivity provided by Intelsat 10-02, located at 1° West, to provide VSAT services for a network that connects multiple sites across Egypt.

“The extension of this agreement from Telecom Egypt is a strong endorsement of the value of Intelsat’s satellite services and our commitment to deliver the best services possible to our customers and their end users,” said Shahrokh Khanzadeh Amiri, Intelsat’s Director of Sales, Middle East and North Africa.

“Satellite remains the best way to provide connectivity for critical communications networks in the region, and we continue to innovate and drive the level of services we deliver even higher. This will ensure that enterprises of all types have access to secure, reliable networks to connect operations and sites spread far and wide.”

Telecom Egypt started its operations in 1854 with the first telegraph line in Egypt. Then it was corporatised in 1998 to replace the former Arab Republic of Egypt National Telecommunication Organisation. The company is the largest provider of fixed-line services in the Middle East and Africa with 6.3 million subscribers as in June 2016.