Orange to Boost its UK Backbone

Lucent Technologies has won a multi-million dollar contract with Orange in the UK to provide solutions and services that will boost the capacity of its ATM Access Transport network. The network enhancements will support increases in the volume of voice, video, and data traffic and significantly reduce operational costs as Orange rolls out its 3G service.

Lucent is providing Orange UK with PacketStar(r) (PSAX) 2300, and 4500 Multiservice Media Gateway systems to provision the aggregation and management of all 3G interface traffic (voice, data and video). The new platforms will also consolidate traffic management for existing 2G services within the same infrastructure, offering Orange significant reductions in operational expenditure.

"We were very impressed by the flexibility, scalability and competitiveness of the PacketStar(r) (PSAX) solutions against other products in the marketplace," said Graham Baxter, head of Network Design and Systems Infrastructure for Orange in the UK. "Supported by the expertise of the Lucent professional services organisation, Lucent was an ideal partner to work with on this project."

Delivering up to 10Gbs of switching capacity, the PacketStar(r)(PSAX) Multiservice Media Gateways offer the highest port capacity per inch of any product of its type on the market today. This is vitally important for mobile operators where space at network edge sites is often very limited. The scalability in the PacketStar(r) (PSAX) gateways enable Orange's infrastructure to support increased voice and data traffic generated from new services and additional subscribers."

Posted to the site on 21st January 2003