Cable & Wireless expands optical fibre network in continental Europe

Cable & Wireless has announced that it has expanded its optical fibre network in southern Europe to meet increasing demand for new, high-bandwidth services as well as to support existing customer requirements. The network expansion comprises more than 1,700 miles of optical fibre and provides additional connectivity of up to 160Gb between Frankfurt, Zurich, Milan, Marseilles, Lyon and Paris. The pan-European network expansion is fully integrated with Cable & Wireless’ international multi-protocol label switching (MPLS) network. Cable & Wireless wholly owns and manages the new infrastructure, so it does not need to rely on leased connections from third parties in southern Europe. C&W says its new network ensures quality of service, since traffic can be automatically re-routed, if necessary. The British telco is in the process of migrating its existing European carrier customers to the new fibre network, and all future standard voice, voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), data and IP services for the region will be rolled out over this infrastructure. The network will also carry traffic generated by Cable & Wireless’ major corporate customers.