Aussie Broadband Teams Up With Telstra Wholesale To Deliver 400Gbps Live Traffic

Aussie Broadband has been working with Telstra Wholesale to trial the delivery of live 400GE client services on two links between Sydney and Melbourne, the companies have announced.

The services, which have been in a live trial since December, utilise multiple data centres along a coastal and inland fibre path. The enhancement has allowed Aussie Broadband to increase its network capacity by up to 400 per cent, opening the door to new and exciting opportunities.

Steve Long, Telstra Wholesale’s Executive said Telstra Wholesale’s higher bandwidth 400Gbps Wavelength Services on selected inter-capital routes would be ideal for customers seeking a robust, high-capacity fibre-based connectivity solution.

“Our deep working relationship with Aussie Broadband has allowed our companies to collaborate on the delivery of this exceptional solution and we are proud to be carrying live traffic across this type of service for them for the first time,” Mr Long said.

“Data traversing over the Telstra fixed network has tripled since 2017 and continues to grow at about 25 per cent each year. Leveraging Telstra’s diverse fibre network, together with our experience in backhaul services, we can tailor backhaul solutions to help future proof our customers’ networks and businesses helping them manage their end users’ ever growing data needs.”

John Reisinger, Aussie Broadband’s Chief Technology Officer and co-founder, said the new 400Gbps links showcased Aussie’s ambitions to continually grow their network footprint while providing more redundancy and certainty for customers.

“Aussie Broadband is the first client to adopt Telstra Wholesale’s native 400Gbps wavelengths, rather than stacking multiple 100Gbps services,” Reisinger said, adding that Aussie Broadband is looking to acquire more links as demand for capacity increases.

“As our nationwide network rapidly grows, the new backbone capacity lets us serve increased traffic demands while simplifying the heart of our network. The additional capacity helps Aussie better handle localised content network outages, which can sometimes result in hundreds of gigabits per second having to be carried to alternate locations.”

Telstra Wholesale customers will be able to utilise 400Gbps Wavelength Services because of the enhancements made to Telstra’s advanced, high-bandwidth optical infrastructure based on Ciena’s solutions. Telstra, through its partner Ericsson, is using Ciena’s 6500 Packet-Optical Platform powered by WaveLogic 5 Extreme (WL5E) programmable 800Gbps coherent technology. WL5e quadruples the data capacity transmitted per client service wavelength, enabling 400Gbps connectivity services, and improves optical network performance while further improving power efficiencies in Telstra’s optical network.

Aussie Broadband’s new 400Gbps services are part of a live trial with expected release to all other Telstra Wholesale customers from April this year. Telstra Wholesale’s 400Gbps Wavelength Services will also be available on other inter-capital routes in 2023.