Du lauds successful 100G transmission trials

UAE telco Du has completed a 100 Gigabit transmission per wavelength trial with Huawei on its Optical Transport Network (OTN).

The telco said that the successful trial was "a first on optical coherent networks", the current bandwidth of which is 10/40G per wavelength. Du is also the only operator in the Middle East to complete these trials on a live network, it said in a statement.

In total, 700km of fibre was tested, split into two routes of 200km and 500km.

The 100G enhancement will allow services to be transmitted at a higher rate over a longer distance, either within the UAE or to connect with other countries. This increased bandwidth will also help Du's network handle increases in internet and mobile broadband use.

"There are operators in Europe who have done this test over a live, long distance network, but so far we are the first to do so in the region," said Hatem Bamatraf, executive VP- network development and operations, Du. "By upgrading to 100G per wavelength we will add further value to our network, increasing and optimising the use of our bandwidth to cope with the increase of high capacity rate (to be transported over Terabits) services, such as the internet and Du TV, giving our customers a seamless experience no matter which of our services they use."

Lv Jun, GM of Huawei UAE, added: "This trial's success will further build on that vision by opening up the pathway to more advanced trials and future network deployments."

In March, Du said that it had hired Cisco to deploy a nationwide LTE network.

In July last year, Saudi Arabian operator Mobily said that it was testing a "superfast" 100-Gigabit broadband service in Jeddah.