By Staff Reporter
WINDHOEK
Major backbone network re-engineering that started on Monday and to last until May could cause limited disruption of Telecom services.
Telecom’s senior manager for corporate communications and public relations, Oiva Angula, who made the announcement recently stated the SDH transmission backbone was upgraded from STM-4 (622 Mbps) to STM-16 (2.5 Gbps) in order to meet the increasing demand for bandwidth-hungry, high speed data services, such as CDMA, ADSL and WiMax that Telecom is deploying to meet demand.
“The increased bandwidth demands from cellular operators – MTC and Cell One – also necessitated the network upgrade,” he said in a media release.
“In our effort to support leading-edge telecommunications products and services, Telecom Namibia has invested heavily in creating a self-healing backbone infrastructure, by having constructed multi-million dollar fibre optic ring networks that span through the entire country,” he added.
Traffic from almost all connected networks is transported over the SDH (Synchronised Digital Hierarchy) transmission network which forms the basis of Telecom Namibia’s state-of-the-art transmission infrastructure.
In modern times, higher speed and larger capacity communications are now indispensable because of the rapid increase of multimedia applications and services, for example ISDN, portable telephones, Personal Handyphone System (PHS), digital leased lines and the Internet, through the globalisation of the communications market, he said.
In view of this Telecom Namibia, in partnership with Marconi, a supplier of telecommunications and information technology equipment and services, will reengineer the current SDH backbone network in preparation for the introduction of the automated protection of services through fibre ring networks. The reengineering is also intended to enhance the quality and flexibility of the transport networks.
The project entails the modification of the circuit information database and will be performed through a phased process, starting from 26 March up until 29 May 2007. It will be conducted from 23h00 to 06h00 to limit the effect of disruption of telecommunication services to customers.
“Telecom Namibia thus wishes to advise customers of limited disruption of services during the above-mentioned period of network reengineering. These interruptions are unavoidable and will affect both national and international voice, data and cellular services,” said Angula.
“We regret any inconvenience the reengineering exercise may possibly cause and wish to assure our customers that Telecom Namibia will do everything in its power to have this process completed as seamlessly as possible, without any major interruptions, “he told customers.
“Customers are reminded that the modernisation of the telecommunications network is to the benefit of the users and the development of the Namibian economy. We call on customers to exercise patience during possible interruptions until the reengineering project is completed,” he said.