Atrica wins France Telecom deal

Optical Ethernet startup Atrica, today revealed that it has secured a deal with France Telecom to deploy its optical Ethernet equipment in its metro networks. Initially, the product is being deployed in Paris to enable new Ethernet-based services like high-speed Internet access, private line and transparent LAN services and DSL backhaul.

The two companies have been carrying out an equipment trial over the past year.

“We feel like this is a really big deal because we don’t see much capex spending,” said Umesh Kukreja, senior product marketing manager at Atrica. “We feel its indicative of what this technology can [offer] as far as compelling services.”

Although the rollout initially is focused on offering Ethernet-based access services in Paris, France Telecom plans to expand service into 20 metro regions with the product.

“France Telecom sees these as new revenue streams,” Kukreja said.

The Atrica equipment uses a combination of 10Gb Ethernet, optical switching, traffic engineering and management and takes aim at existing Sonet and next-generation Sonet boxes.