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Nortel to showcase networking breakthrough
To support a tenfold increase in network speeds

By Marguerite Reardon

Published: Wednesday 12 March 2008

Nortel Networks has said it has developed new optical networking gear that can quadruple the capacity on telecommunications networks.

The new technology is designed to help network operators deal with bandwidth-gobbling applications like high-definition internet video.

Nortel, the largest supplier of telephony gear in North America, plans to announce Wednesday that it has developed gear that can shuttle traffic across the internet backbone at speeds of 40 gigabits per second, according to news wire service Reuters.

Nortel says the technology has the ability to provide a tenfold increase in network speeds, giving operators the ability to transfer data at 100Gbps. Denmark's TDC and the UK's Neos Networks will be named as Nortel's first customers, Reuters said. Trials with other carriers around the world are currently ongoing.

Many carriers throughout the world are likely looking to upgrade their networks as customers use the internet to access more bandwidth-intensive applications, like high-definition video. Today's high-capacity networks support speeds of 10Gbps, which is enough bandwidth to transfer about 1,000 high-definition television channels simultaneously.