Network World - AT&T plans to begin upgrading its global MPLS (Multi Protocol Label Switching) backbone to 40Gbit/sec. OC-768 speeds this summer.
The upgrade is part of AT&T's network expansion plan announced in February. That plan is funded by a 2006 capital expenditure budget of $8 billion to $8.5 billion.
AT&T Senior Vice President and CTO John Stankey announced the 40Gbit/sec upgrade, which will quadruple the backbone's current bandwidth, during a keynote address at this week's Globalcomm 2006 conference in Chicago. Stankey said initial deployments of OC-768 will be in 31 U.S. cities by the first quarter of 2007.
Global Crossing this week also disclosed it has begun upgrading its MPLS backbone to OC-768 (See "Global Crossing enhances service, upgrades network").
Stankey also said AT&T is on target to roll out IPTV in 15 to 20 markets by the end of this year.
He said AT&T has been able to achieve 20Mbit/sec. to 25Mbit/sec.over 4,000 feet, and even more in shorter distances.
IPTV is one application of AT&T's $6 billion Project Lightspeed fiber and DSL deployment.
Free Insider GuideCopyright © 1994 - 2012 Computerworld Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written permission of Computerworld Inc. is prohibited. Computerworld and Computerworld.com and the respective logos are trademarks of International Data Group Inc.
