NetCologne extends reach with Marconi optical network

Marconi will extend the NetCologne optical network of Cologne in Germany beyond the city limits to cover four million potential new customers and will provide 24-hour, on-site back up for the entire system.

The contract, an extension to a long-standing frame agreement, is worth up to £6 million, and brings NetCologne's spend with Marconi over the last five years to nearly £24 million.

NetCologne has used Marconi's AON (Active Optical Network) and SDH (Synchronous Digital Hierarchy) technology since 1997, the year after it became Germany's first telco to win a city licence. It currently provides telephone services to over 60,000 premises, while its Internet and cable TV services are each taken by 40,000 subscribers.

Under the latest extension to the frame contract, Marconi will install arrays of its ONU 400, ONU 200 and ONU 32 Optical Networks Units as well as network gateways and controllers.

Management of the entire system, which now contains over 700 optical network elements, will remain under the control of Marconi's NSU management system. NetCologne's subscribers are hooked up to the network by a mixture of fibre to the office and fibre to the kerbside, depending on their size.

Commenting on the decision to go with Marconi, NetCologne chairman Hanf Werner, said: "This contract is the result of our experience with Marconi over several years. We were encouraged by its demonstrable technical strengths, its ability to blend narrowband and broadband interfaces, and the fact that it was able to offer us a complete technical package."

The network expansion will be installed through 2001.

With contributions by Evan Bass
Managing Editor, Fiber Optics Online