Int’l Roundup: Telia Carrier, Sparkle, Ericsson, BT, Ciena

Expansions, upgrades, and deployments by international network operators across multiple continents to keep an eye on:

Telia Carrier’s ongoing US network expansion has taken it to the Silicon Prairie. Yesterday the international network operator added a new DWDM route between Chicago and Denver, passing through and adding new connectivity options to Des Moines and Omaha. They also built out new PoPs and metro rings at each end: O’Hare in Chicago and the Tech Center in Denver. Last month, Telia announced plans to sell Telia Carrier to Polhem Infra, which will separate the company from its parent sometime in the first half of 2021.

Sparkle has found some new territory to expand into down in South America. They have added their first PoP in Porto Alegre, which for the geographically impaired lies to the south of Sao Paolo along the coast of Brazil. It’s Sparkle’s 12th PoP in Brazil, complementing those in Sao Paolo, Rio De Janeiro, Fortaleza, and Salvador. The international arm of TIM Group leverages the Seabras-1 and Curie cables to give its Seabone backbone reach into 9 countries on the continent.

This week Ericsson offered up some details on its progress across Africa during 2020, picking up key contracts across the continent. They are providing managed services to MTN Benin, powering the commercial 5G efforts of Telma Madagascar and MTN South Africa, and enabling 4G expansion with Airtel Africa in Kenya. In addition, their IoT Accelerator technology will be used by Telenor Connexion’s global connectivity to Wayout’s sustainable water treatment micro-factories across East Africa, and they are teaming up with Airtel Zambia on a Product Take Back program.

And BT has tapped Blue Planet’s technology in an effort to improve its user experience for multinational enterprise customers. The division of Ciena is providing BT with intelligent automation software, enabling the design and activation of end-to-end network connectivity from within BT’s cloud. BT is using the new capabilities to improve its cloud-based collaboration services.

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Categories: Internet Backbones · SDN · Telecom Equipment · Wireless