The submarine cable offering combines TE SubCom’s equipment with Ciena’s optical platform
TE SubCom, a company specializing in submarine cable network technology, and Ciena signed a strategic alliance to work on the development of open submarine cable networking solutions.
The two firms said the alliance will allow customers seeking a single point of contact for both wet plant and dry plant to combine TE SubCom’s wet plant designs and marine installation with Ciena’s 6500 Packet-Optical Platform powered by WaveLogic coherent optics to create a next-generation undersea cable system.
TE SubCom’s Open Cables business model, which launched last year, allows customers to select their preferred submarine transceiver equipment vendor. Under terms of the agreement, customers can purchase the solution from TE SubCom or can also contract independently with TE SubCom for wet plant and Ciena for transmission equipment.
“The Open Cables model has enabled us to offer our customers options that have never before been available in the undersea cable industry,” said Aaron Stucki, president of TE SubCom. “That model is now further enhanced through this agreement with Ciena, as cable operators wishing to deploy Ciena’s equipment on TE SubCom networks will be able to do so efficiently, with the full support of our engineering team and our commitment to on-time delivery of an end-to-end solution.”
TE SubCom, owned by TE Connectivity, designs, manufactures, deploys and maintains undersea fiber optic cable systems. Its solutions include long-haul and regional systems, repeaterless networks, capacity upgrades, offshore oil and gas, and scientific research applications.
AT&T plans to expand fiber to 85 cities in 20 metro areas this month
AT&T announced plans to offer gigabit broadband connectivity in nearly 85 U.S. cities across 20 major metropolitan areas by the end of this month.
The telco said the AT&T fiber service launched this week in Baton Rouge, Louisiana; Birmingham, Alabama; Charleston, South Carolina; and Reno, Nevada, increasing the operator’s fiber footprint to 44 major metros areas across the country.
AT&T also announced plans to expand its fiber network in 16 metro areas where it has already launched fiber services. The cities included in this upgrade program are Atlanta; Charlotte and Raleigh, North Carolina; Chicago; Cleveland; Dallas, Houston and San Antonia, Texas; Fresno, Los Angeles and San Francisco, California; Jacksonville, Miami, Orlando and West Palm Beach, Florida; and St. Louis.
