UNIFI Communications, a U.S.-based international wholesale service provider that sells service to Latin America, Eastern and Western Europe, Asia and Africa-base service providers, is employing Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE: ALU) for the first phase of its Balkans-Italy Network (BIN).
Alcatel-Lucent will provide both turnkey services to Albania's first private undersea cable system that will connect Tirana (Albania) to Bari (Italy), which will be ready for service at the end of 2011. In addition, Alcatel-Lucent will deploy optical network equipment at landing points on the network linking Italty to the newly created Balkans Internet eXchange BIX in Tirana.
Upon completion, UNIFI's BIX will become Albania's first fiber-based data center providing connectivity from Albania to major telecom hubs in Western Europe, including Milan, Frankfurt, Amsterdam and London.
Leveraging DWDM technology, UNIFI will market and sell various types of services, including 1 Gbps wholesale Internet transport, and dark fiber connectivity to Albania from Italy and other parts of Europe.
While UNIFI will focus its initial attention on Phase 1, future phases of the BIX will provide connectivity into Albania's neighboring countries of Greece, Kosovo, Macedonia, and Montenegro.
For more:
- see the release (PDF)
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