Telstra Wholesale Picks Ciena to Enable 400Gbps Services

Telstra Wholesale has launched 400Gbps wavelength services on intercapital routes after a successful trial with Aussie Broadband earlier in the year.

The service supports customers who need robust, high capacity fibre connectivity to meet growing bandwidth demands.

Telstra Wholesale’s 400Gbps wavelength services are available today on routes between Adelaide, Melbourne, Canberra, Sydney and Brisbane. Each route has three geographically diverse paths to provide additional redundancy. 400Gbps services are expected to be available on Adelaide–Perth and Melbourne–Hobart in FY24.

Steve Long, Telstra Wholesale’s Executive, said the 400Gbps wavelength service is part of Telstra Wholesale’s strategy of supporting customers with a range of solutions to cater for different demands.

“Data traffic continues to grow on our fixed networks. High capacity services are vital to help our customers satisfy growing end user demand while also making their networks simpler and more efficient,” Long said. “Our 400Gbps service is part of a toolkit of connectivity solutions for customers that use our diverse fibre network. With our backhaul experience and range of services, we can tailor solutions for customers to meet almost any need.”

Telstra Wholesale customers can utilise 400Gbps wavelength services because of the enhancements made to Telstra's advanced, high-bandwidth optical infrastructure based on Ciena's technology.

Telstra, through its technology partner Ericsson is using Ciena’s 6500 Packet-Optical Platform powered by WaveLogic 5 Extreme (WL5e) programmable 800Gbps coherent technology. WL5e enables 400Gbps connectivity services by quadrupling the data capacity transmitted per client service. It also improves optical network performance and optimizes power utilisation in Telstra’s optical network. The 400GE interfaces used also have the same physical footprint as a 100GE interface, offering Telstra Wholesale customers a sustainable upgrade path without compromising on any physical restrictions.