€19 million for Alcatel

Alcatel has been selected by the Principality of Asturias, Spain, to deploy a Fibre to the User (FTTU) network in the mining valley of Asturias.

The network will provide residents of regions near the Caudal, Nalón and Narcea river basins, access to high speed Internet and bandwidth-intensive applications.

Alcatel is the turnkey provider of this €19 million project, with full responsibility for the network design and planning, as well as for its deployment, service roll out and maintenance, for the Asturias' local authority.

Alcatel will also supply its 7450 Ethernet Service Switch (ESS) to ensure interconnection between the multiple networks, and to provide the various network operators within this northern Spanish region with the flexibility required to differentiate service types. The Alcatel 7450 ESS will also provide broadband aggregation which will help optimise capacity in the FTTH network.

The Alcatel solution will allow users to access a wide range of voice, IP television (IPTV) and Internet services, at speeds of up to 10Mbps, with the flexibility to expand in the future.

"With the deployment of this broadband network, we can satisfy one of our government's prime objectives: to offer the most advanced communications services regardless of whether the citizens are located in remote or densely-populated centres," commented Luis Iturrioz, Vice Minister of Budget and Public Administration for the Principality of Asturias.