Tunisie Telecom Brings Next-Gen Broadband to Fiber-Unfriendly Regions

Tunisie Telecom is bringing ultra-broadband throughout North Africa, using a combination of fiber and copper-based technologies, via a program other service providers and municipalities have successfully used in North America and Europe.

The 22-year-old Tunisian service provider already uses fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) and VDSL2 services from MSANs deployed traditionally, said Jamel Sakka, chief technology officer, in a statement. But to serve customers in hard-to-reach areas like rural regions, these approaches were too costly or otherwise inappropriate, he said. Instead, sealed outside plant (OSP) DSLAM solutions offered a cost-effective, powerful alternative to provide residential and enterprise customers with next-generation broadband in fiber-unfriendly areas.

"There are numerous locations where we wish to improve broadband subscriber speeds rapidly and cost-effectively by evolving our network design," said Sakka. "Tunisie Telecom is committed to providing high speed broadband services on a widespread basis, working alongside market leading vendors to develop solutions that address the needs of our customers within a sustainable business model."

To reach under- or unserved areas, Tunisie Telecom is deploying ADTRAN's 1148VX OSP DSLAM, providing users with broadband speeds of more than 90Mb/s with distance of around 200m with remote power, more than 59Mb/s with 802.11b/g/n 2.4GHz WiFi, and more than 20Mb/s for distance of about 2km, according to the vendor. Tunisie Telecom is incorporating environmentally sealed, temperature-hardened micro-FTTx solutions that can avoid delay penalties operators may incur while they await a local utility's power delivery and address the climate, ADTRAN said. After all, in the peak of summer, temperatures can hover around 104 degrees Fahrenheit and winter months can be frigid.

In fact, service providers have deployed more than 130,000 of these nodes in harsh climates around the globe, said Werner Heinrich, director broadband solutions at ADTRAN, in the release.

The privately held CSP -- which has more than 7 million customers for its nationwide fixed and fiber network infrastructure, complemented by a submarine cable network that offers fully redundant connectivity to Europe, Africa and Asia -- offers an array of services including 4G mobile broadband, FTTH and FTTB, cloud and IP-MPLS for enterprise subscribers.

Tunisie Telecom is leveraging ADTRAN's EMEA Enabling Communities Connecting Lives (ECCL) program, which highlights how cities, towns and communities across continents use technologies to support economic growth, urban redevelopment, municipal and educational services and new residential offerings, according to the vendor. From North America to Europe to Africa, many regions have tapped this initiative for their broadband deployments.

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— Alison Diana, Editor, UBB2020. Follow us on Twitter @UBB2020 or @alisoncdiana.