Marconi picks LongReach for Telstra radio infrastructure

Microwave radio is seen as a reasonable alternative for medium to large capacity deployments especially in regional locations where a fibre rollout is expensive.

With regional bandwidth upgrades requiring increasing amounts of capacity, LongReach estimates that annual deployments of radios will be around 200 per annum.

A cornerstone of the LongReach solution for Telstra is the new IR Series radio enabling customers to deploy microwave radio networks; including LAN-WAN connectivity, Internet bridging and backhaul applications.

Marconi's Multiservice Network portfolio will underpin all aspects of Telstra's transport infrastructure, including radio transmission and network management.

Under the frame contract, Marconi will provide the carrier's 2.5GB transport network requirements through the provision of Synchronous Digital Hierarchy (SDH), Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM), Coarse Wavelength Division Multiplexing (CWDM), radio and next-generation SDH requirements (Multi Service Provisioning Platform--MSPP).

The enhancements to the Telstra network will cover its access layer, core transport layer, its metropolitan and regional networks, and associated network management systems.