Belgium-based Belgacom (News - Alert) has partnered with Alcatel-Lucent to expand its network infrastructure to cater to high bandwidth demand from customers, businesses, data centers and content platforms.
A service provider in Belgium, Belgacom will be deploying Alcatel-Lucent’s (News 
- Alert) Extensible Routing System (XRS) to provide the necessary bandwidth for institutions and residential customers enabling easy access to video, cloud-based applications and immersive multimedia on various devices.
Johan Luystermans, vice president network engineering and operations at Belgacom said, “Thanks to the XRS, our customers will be able to watch more videos in more places, play more sophisticated video games, perform more transactions, share more data and overall do all the things they depend upon the Internet to do but now at greater speeds and with more reliability than was ever possible before.”
The Alcatel-Lucent XRS system needs minimum physical space and is power efficient relative to many other routers. The presence of core routers in a network is to direct data traffic and monitor the speed at which ‘packets’ of data are delivered.
According to officials, the Alcatel-Lucent’s 7950 XRS router is reliable in reducing deployment risks for service providers, and simplifies operations enhancing the IP core. The router can accommodate the immense growth in video traffic owing to the popularity of smartphones and tablets by preparing the core of the network for optimum connectivity.
The 7950 XRS family helps boost capacity in IP networks providing five times the data throughput with less power consumption. Belgacom will be able to save space and power costs and support the rapid adoption of ‘cloud’ applications.
Luis Martinez Amago, president of Alcatel-Lucent’s EMEA region, said, “The XRS is a truly groundbreaking innovation, capable of reinventing the very heart of the Internet. It will benefit Belgacom significantly in both meeting the needs of home and institutional customers, and in lowering the operational cost of running an IP network.”
In related news, a recent study by market watcher Ovum reveals that European telecom carriers are struggling to grow. Hence, to offset declining revenue from the traditional fixed voice market, the study indicates that they must broaden their non-voice services.
Only one of the major players in the wholesale fixed voice sector, Belgacom managed to increase its revenue from the sector.
Edited by
Braden Becker
