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BT has launched the first ever trial of a 10Gbps or ‘hyper-fast’ broadband network in a live working environment.

Cornwall based engineering firm Arcol UK Ltd, is the test site for deployment of the new technology where the service runs in tandem with the company’s existing 330Mbps service on the same fibre.

The proof of concept trial uses new fibre technology called XGPON (Tens of Gibabits on a Passive Optical Network) developed by electronics company ZTE, in partnership with Openreach.

Arcol is connected by a direct fibre link from its offices to BT’s exchange in Truro, and is the first business in the country to enjoy the record-breaking speeds, with more bandwidth available than was used at the highest peak for the entire Olympics media network.

The demonstration aims to show how even faster speeds could be provided over Cornwall’s new fibre infrastructure in the future by upgrading the electronics at the exchange and in user premises.

Potential speeds are so fast that the physical limits of the networking and computer equipment prevent the line from being used at its maximum capacity. And although the direct link between the Truro exchange and Arcol runs at 10Gbps, the company isn’t connected to the wider internet at those speeds as there is nothing that can be done on the web with 10Gbps.

Ranulf Scarbrough, Programme Director for the Superfast Cornwall progamme, said: “What is exciting about this trial is that these hyper-fast speeds have been obtained over the exactly the same fibre that carries BT’s fibre broadband services today. All we are doing is changing the electronics at either end.”

“This trial shows we are thinking and ready for the future even though there are no current plans to deploy this technology. A lot of this project is about future proofing – making sure that it’s not just the fastest speeds today but that we can continue to be at the cutting edge for five, ten, twenty years.”

The 10Gbps trial runs over high speed fibre optic network established by the Superfast Cornwall Programme, a pioneering superfast broadband partnership between the EU, BT and Cornwall Council, which has made fibre optic broadband available to over 100,000 Cornish homes and businesses.

Until recently, Arcol’s 40 staff had shared a 1.5Mbps internet connection. The Superfast Cornwall Programme has delivered high speed fibre-to-the-premise to the business park enabling Arcol to connect at 330Mbps. Alun Morgan, technical director at Arcol, said the ability to connect at such fast speeds was “opening the door” for the company to achieve much more.

"We are still only just discovering the sorts of things we can do with these speeds, such as taking advantage of services like videoconferencing and using a cloud-based ERP system so we can access this information elsewhere, and it has enabled us to be much more efficient and aggressive," Alun Morgan said.

European computing and network services provider Colt Technology Services is now offering 100 Gigabit Ethernet (100GbE) services over its long-distance network using DTN platforms from provider Infinera (NASDAQ: INFN).

Colt first deployed the Infinera DTN in 2009 (see “COLT selects Infinera for pan-European network”) and has used the system to provide a variety of services (see “Colt claims low latency of 4.22 ms between London to Frankfurt”). The service provider and Infinera have collaborated on bringing 100GbE services to Colt’s enterprise and wholesale customers for several years, including a 100GbE field trial in 2010.

The new 100GbE services leverage Colt’s European infrastructure, which includes 20 carrier neutral data centers and its long distance network that links 39 metropolitan area networks. Colt’s network includes direct connections to 18,000 buildings across the continent.

“As the company continues to transform from a traditional B2B telecoms operator to a provider of integrated IT and network services, enhancing our Ethernet services capabilities is key to delivering an end to end service experience that matches our customer’s agenda,” said Luke Broome, CTO at Colt. “Our use of the Infinera DTN to deliver 100GbE services on our long distance network will support customers with the highest performance demands in achieving their business priorities.”

“Colt plays an integral role in providing critical network and IT services throughout Europe,” said Chris Champion, vice president, EMEA sales at Infinera. “We are pleased that Colt has chosen us to deliver high speed optical Ethernet services to their customers.”

North Dakota’s Dakota Carrier Network (DCN) LLC has added the ability to transport coherent-based 40-Gbps and 100-Gbps wavelengths on its statewide fiber-optic backbone network. DCN deployed the 6500 Packet-Optical Platform from Ciena Corp. (NASDAQ: CIEN) to enable the new capabilities, according to the systems house.

DCN, a collaboration among 15 independent rural telecommunications companies, serves more than 153,000 customers in 244 communities via 40,000 miles of fiber-optic cable. The service provider received approximately $10.8 million in grant money from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration’s (NTIA) Broadband Technology Opportunities Program to upgrade its fiber-optic network. DCN, which already was using 10-Gbps equipment from Ciena, has deployed the 6500 Packet-Optical Platform to create an 88-channel DWDM ring infrastructure. The 10G equipment also can be upgraded through the 6500 platform, Ciena adds.

“DCN provides the foundation for much of North Dakota’s telecommunications infrastructure, and is thus a critical enabler of the state’s economic advancement,” said DCN’s general manager, Evan Hass. “With Ciena’s industry-leading 6500, we can provide our customers confidence that North Dakota has the communications infrastructure to support delivery of broadband-enabled services including healthcare, education, public safety, and long-term business growth.”

“DCN is a great example of a regional service provider that is taking advantage of developments in packet-optical transport technology to help foster economic opportunity for its customers and local community,” according to Chad Whalen, vice president and general manager, North America field operations at Ciena. “Ciena’s coherent optical technology gives DCN a cost-effective and future-proof foundation to ensure its residential, commercial, and government customers have the connectivity required to be successful.”

FiberLight, LLC, a fiber-optic network service provider in the U.S. Southeast, will use packet switches from Ciena Corp. (NASDAQ: CIEN) in new mobile backhaul networks the service provider is building for two major U.S. wireless operators. Ciena says the new mobile backhaul networks will connect more than 450 cell towers with fiber to support 100 Mbps to each tower. FiberLight will have the ability to scale these connections to 1 Gbps, Ciena adds.

FiberLight provides a range of network services via a 500,000 fiber-mile network across Georgia, Texas, Florida, Maryland, and Washington, D.C. In the first of the two expansion projects, FiberLight will build a dedicated fiber-based mobile backhaul network in West Texas for what Ciena described as “a top tier LTE wireless provider.” The 3000 miles of new fiber-optic network infrastructure will feature Ciena’s 3900 family of packet networking systems at the network edge.

The second project, for a different customer, will see new infrastructure that will stretch across Texas, Washington, Maryland, and Florida. The network will connect 200 cell towers with six major aggregation sites.

Ciena will supply its 5410 and 5150 Service Aggregation Switches and 3930, 3931 and 3960 Service Delivery Switches for the deployments. FiberLight plans to use the switches’ subtending G.8032 Ethernet ring support to increase network scalability and reliability. The service provider also will leverage Ciena’s management system to ease service activation and ensure the health of the network. Finally, it also will receive consultation, maintenance, and support via Ciena Specialist Services.

The deployment will have three phases, the last of which should be completed by the end of 2012.

“By deploying Ciena’s packet networking infrastructure at the vast majority of towers we serve, we are enabling our customers to quickly scale from 100 Mbps to 1 Gbps per tower, eliminate bandwidth restrictions, and reduce the potential for data bottlenecks,” said Andrew Stravelli, vice president, network engineering at FiberLight, via a Ciena press release. “Additionally, the automation, remote provisioning, and reporting features provided by Ciena’s management solution allows us to proactively monitor, maintain, and troubleshoot our customers’ networks. Our end customers can then use the secure, cloud-based portal to confirm that we are meeting SLA requirements.”