hellas online Selects Cisco and Intracom Telecom for Its National Optical Fiber Network

Platform Puts Next-Generation Broadband Services Within Reach of All Businesses in Greece

ATHENS.- Cisco announced today that it has been selected as the equipment supplier by hellas online for a nationwide optical transport network in Greece. The network, which has been designed and implemented by Intracom Telecom, employs Cisco® optical networking and routing technologies over an Internet Protocol Next-Generation Network architecture.

hellas online, part of the Intracom Holdings Group, is making significant infrastructure investments using cutting-edge technologies to enhance the quality and reach of its broadband services. Today, hellas online’s proprietary fiber optic network extends to more than 3,500 kilometers nationwide, enabling the company to offer highly competitive residential voice and data services, while placing it at a leading position in business services, including IP telephony, virtual private networks and next-generation fiber-to-the business services.

“Operating our own network, the second largest in the country, gives hellas online an important edge over our competitors, and the new cooperation provides us with a future-proof platform to innovate and expand,” said Dimitris Gorgias, network engineering and operations director at hellas online. “Intracom Telecom and Cisco’s approach to optical network design makes the management and operation of the network much simpler. As a result, our customers will experience faster installation times, higher-speed services and first-class reliability so that they can also compete more effectively in their markets.”

“Intracom Telecom, a Cisco Gold Certified Partner, possesses vast technology know-how on the design, implementation and support of optical networks within the EEMEA (Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa) region. hellas online exploits these capabilities to obtain the optimal design, the rapid deployment and the high availability of its optical network,” said Alexandros Manos, chief executive officer of Intracom Telecom.

hellas online has deployed the Cisco ONS15454 Multiservice Transport Platform in the core and aggregation networks, supporting 40 gigabits per second wavelengths and offering the flexibility to make dynamic changes and expansions to the topology of the network. The innovative Cisco Ethernet over dense wavelength-division multiplexing Xponder line card technology used by hellas online in the DSL aggregation network helps to preserve scarce wavelength resources, by allowing multiple DSL access sites to be connected to the IP core network using a single wavelength.

“The demand for broadband services, driven by the availability of visual networking and Web 2.0 services, is growing despite the economic situation,” said Paolo Campoli, senior director for sales business development at Cisco. “Cisco’s integrated IP and optical solution is helping hellas online to simplify and ’de-layer’ the network design, which is the best way to reduce the production cost of bandwidth and secure a competitive cost base. With the close collaboration of the hellas online, Intracom Telecom and Cisco teams, we have been able to deliver a world-class broadband infrastructure that will benefit consumers and businesses throughout Greece for many years to come.”