As a result, Tiscali will be able to offer ULL-based services to about 40% of the Italian fixed lines.

Tiscali will be deploying the Infinera DTN for its national backbone network and Infinera ATN systems for its metro networks.

Tiscali is deploying the new Infinera ATN metro edge platform in more than 80 metro areas where it already has a strong network presence, including most major and medium-sized Italian cities such as Rome, Milan, Turin, and Palermo.

The ATN is designed to offer seamless integration with an Infinera DTN network with a common network management system, enabling end-to-end service provisioning and visibility.

According to Infinera: “With the ability to eliminate back-to-back transponders at network interconnection points, an ATN/DTN network can deliver savings in capital expenditure, while extending Infinera’s well-known ease of operation to the metro edge.”

MAN network in Bologna deployed by Lepida

Despite the current uncertainties regarding nationwide NGN infrastructure building, some regional programs are progressing at full speed, like in Bologna, where a new MAN network is going live.

To ease fibre deployment in a big cities of medieval fame and home of the oldest University in the Western world, high-tech came to the rescue in the form of a very flexible compact high fibres count cable supplied by Tratos Cavi.

312 fiber cable by Tratos

The 21 mm outer diameter cable hosts 312 fibres organized in two rings of 10+16 loose tubes, each one containing 12 fibres.

This advanced cable has been custom designed by Tratos Cavi thanks to joint R&D activities with Lepida, in order to meet both the stringent performance requirements in term of density, low attenuation, low PMD (polarization mode dispersion), zero water peak  and the extreme strenght and flexibility to be installed in existing ducts.

Fibre cable used Bologna's MAN

According to Lepida, the local network companies running the Bologna MAN project, the cable was indeed powerful and flexible enough to be installed also in difficult ducts not originally designed for telecom applications.

The Bologna’s MAN is part of a bigger project financed by the regional government of Emilia Romagna and other local institutions to support competiveness through better telecom infrastructure.

The strategic partnership expands Telecom Italia Sparkle’s service portfolio with the addition of CDNetworks’ full suite of advanced content delivery solutions for media delivery, content acceleration, and software and other file downloads.

“This partnership enables us to offer a new category of services to our customers, backed by one of the world’s leading content delivery network companies – CDNetworks,” said Arturo Danesi, executive vice president, head of marketing wholesale for Telecom Italia Sparkle. “The combination of CDNetworks’ advanced content delivery technology and Telecom Italia Sparkle’s global network infrastructure and strong operational capabilities will allow us to provide a very compelling solution to our customers.”

In addition to their existing sales force, Telecom Italia Sparkle is deploying a specialized team in Europe dedicated to CDNetworks’ content delivery offering. The partnership enables CDNetworks to dramatically extend its sales and support reach throughout Europe, and reduce operating costs by leveraging Telecom Italia Sparkle’s extensive network infrastructure.

“We are pleased to partner with one of the world’s leading telecom companies to extend our sales reach throughout Europe,” said Robert Gribnau, vice president of EMEA for CDNetworks. “With this partnership, not only will we have some of the brightest telecom professionals offering our extended suite of services to customers and prospects throughout Europe, we will also have access to an outstanding network infrastructure that will help enhance our own services portfolio in the near future.”

As such, Vodafone recently launched the equivalent business version of this triple-play offer targeted to the SOHO market. Available in two flavors, it bundles Adsl access, unlimited free fixed calls and free mobile calls to company’s mobiles for a 39€ per month flat fee.
The hardware side of the offer is the same as the consumer offers: Vodafone Station (Asdl+2/Wifi/UMTS modem router + removable Usb UMTS Internet Key), so that the service can be activated instantly while waiting for the ADSL line.

Fastweb’s fibre optic network, avalaible in selected Italian cities, covers 2 million potential customers and it is believed to be the most extensive fibre optic infrastructure in Europe.
Now Fastweb has about 250.000 customers connected through FTTH.

The two companies said the are committed to:

• Joint planning for the realization of civil infrastructure facilitating cable laying for the development of respective fibre optic networks - for example cable ducts along roads – to favour the development of new generation networks while eliminating further infrastructure duplication.
• The exchange, under reciprocal conditions, of rights to use civil infrastructure.
• Joint study and testing of innovative techniques in civil infrastructure, such as the use of latest generation micro-tubing for laying optical fibre.