Southern Cross Selects Alcatel-Lucent's Submarine Solution for Capacity Leap Over the Australasia-U.S. Connection

The network upgrade will provide further route diversity and capacity in the Australasian region to maximize the benefits of broadband services to both residential and business users. Alcatel-Lucent will upgrade the network's ten landing stations, which are located close to the major international hubs of Sydney (Australia), Auckland (New Zealand), Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle and Honolulu (the U.S.) for ease of access.

The project will be rolled-out in two phases. The first phase will consist in upgrading the existing 480 Gbit/s capacity up to 660 Gbit/s by the end of the first quarter 2008 and the second phase will bring it up to 860 Gbit/s by the end of 2008. The high scalability offered by Alcatel-Lucent's optical technology will also facilitate future upgrades up to 2.4 Tbit/s.

"By doubling the existing network capacity, this upgrade project will help Southern Cross support the increased traffic generated by the rapid adoption of ADSL2+ services and Ethernet-based applications with enhanced flexibility and reliability," stated Ross Pfeffer, Director of Sales and Marketing at Southern Cross. "Alcatel-Lucent's advanced optical technology will assist us in taking a new significant step in addressing our end-user needs and further protect our network to ensure maximum reliability."

"The cooperation between Southern Cross and Alcatel-Lucent has proven successful in several projects," said Jean Godeluck, President of Alcatel-Lucent's submarine network activity. "Through our recognized expertise in managing and deploying submarine cable networks, coupled with a top quality and service support, we are well positioned to answer all our customer needs."

The Alcatel-Lucent solution will be based on both submarine and terrestrial equipment. For the submarine section, Alcatel-Lucent will deploy its 1620 Light Manager DWDM submarine line terminal. The landing stations will also be upgraded with the Alcatel-Lucent 1675 LambdaUnite Multi-Service Switch (MSS), offering advanced dynamic networking based on Automatically Switched Optical Network (ASON*)/Generalized Multi-Protocol Label Switching (GMPLS**) intelligent control plane for improvement of network availability, strengthening of traffic protection and enabling accelerated optical connection provisioning.

* About ASON

An automatically switched optical network (ASON) is a network based on a technology enabling the automatic delivery of transport services. In an ASON, each network node should be equipped with a Control Plane. The Control Plane sets up and releases connections and may restore a connection in case of a failure.

** About GMPLS

Generalized MPLS (GMPLS) extends MPLS to provide the control plane (signaling and routing) for devices that switch in different domains, including wavelength, and fiber. This common control plane promises to simplify network operation and management by automating end-to-end provisioning of connections, managing network resources, and providing the level of QoS that is expected in new, sophisticated applications.

About Southern Cross

Southern Cross Cable Network provides the fastest, most direct, and most secure international bandwidth from Australia, New Zealand and Hawaii to the heart of the Internet in the USA. Commissioned in 2000 and 2001 as two diverse submarine cables to the US, the Southern Cross Network has been engineered until 2025 to provide for the rapidly expanding capacity needs of high-speed broadband. In 2001 total installed capacity was 80 Gbps; in January 2003 the total network was expanded to 480 Gbps; by end-2008 total installed capacity will be 860 Gbps. Southern Cross can easily expand to 2.4 Tbps of transmission capability by installing more of the equipment that is being used for its current capacity upgrade. With new technology continually improving potential transmission speeds, the ultimate size of the Southern Cross Cable Network is likely to considerably exceed 2.4 Tbps. Southern Cross Cable Network is owned by Telecom NZ (50%), Singtel-Optus (40%) and Verizon Business (10%). The company has offices in Bermuda, Sydney, Auckland and Wellington. For more information visit Southern Cross at: http://www.southerncrosscables.com

About Alcatel-Lucent

Alcatel-Lucent (Euronext Paris and NYSE: ALU) provides solutions that enable service providers, enterprises and governments worldwide, to deliver voice, data and video communication services to end-users. As a leader in fixed, mobile and converged broadband networking, IP technologies, applications, and services, Alcatel-Lucent offers the end-to-end solutions that enable compelling communications services for people at home, at work and on the move. With operations in more than 130 countries, Alcatel-Lucent is a local partner with global reach. The company has the most experienced global services team in the industry, and one of the largest research, technology and innovation organizations in the telecommunications industry. Alcatel-Lucent achieved adjusted proforma revenues of Euro 18.3 billion in 2006 and is incorporated in France, with executive offices located in Paris. [All figures exclude impact of activities transferred to Thales]. For more information, visit Alcatel-Lucent on the Internet: http://www.alcatel-lucent.com