Marconi to Provide Broadband Access Solution for German Carrier

LONDON, Aug. 14 - Marconi Plc, a London-based international group focused on high growth communications and selective markets for high technology products, has been selected by German carrier tesion Communikationsnetze Südwest to provide and deploy network access equipment. The German carrier picked Marconi after having seen a demonstration of the communications group's technology on tesion's Baden-Württemberg SDH backbone.
Marconi's technology will allow tesion to provide voice and high-speed Internet and data services to private and commercial customers in the cities of Mannheim, Karlsruhe, Freiburg and Heilbronn. Tesion's asynchronous transfer mode overlay network will also offer customers access to the integrated services digital network and 155-Mb/s data links.
The installation project, which will cover 60 major distribution sites in the German state of Baden-Württemberg, is worth £3 million, but could reach more than £13 million a year for several years as tesion's network continues to expand, said Marconi.
By furnishing Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line compatibility, Marconi will give tesion the choice of using traditional copper as the final link for high-speed Internet access to its customers. Deregulation in the German telecommunications industry has given operators like tesion the right to share Deutsche Telekom's copper access loop to hook up its customers and to place their network equipment in Deutsche Telekom's exchanges.