Telstra International boosts Asia Pacific capacity by 30% with 400G
Telstra International has announced a 30% increase in total network capacity across its busiest Asia Pacific routes with a 200Tbps boost to its subsea and backhaul network.
The upgrade has been achieved through the deployment of Ciena's WaveLogic 6 Extreme and Nokia's Infinite Capacity Engine 7, underpinning a move to faster capacity with 400G service offerings and supporting the company's objectives toward a more autonomous, cloud-based network infrastructure by 2030.
Technology investment
Telstra International stated that this capacity improvement reflects its commitment to building a secure, resilient and scalable digital infrastructure. By adopting the latest optical technologies, the company aims to address increasing demand for data and connectivity throughout the region.
The enhancements allow the network to be more flexible and scalable, with provisioning lead times reduced from months to weeks or even days, supporting businesses in their need for digital solutions that can adapt to changing requirements.
"This year, we're on track to fully cloudify our subsea and backhaul network," said Roary Stasko, CEO Telstra International.
Stasko commented on the pace of progress for the company's digital transformation efforts, highlighting substantial developments in modernising the transport infrastructure layer and enabling the rapid delivery of bandwidth to meet fluctuating customer demands.
"We've made strong progress in cloudifying the transport infrastructure layer, allowing us to provision services rapidly and scale high bandwidth to demand-where and when our customers need it. Telstra International is among the industry leaders collaborating with both Ciena and Nokia to introduce the cloudification of digital infrastructure."
400G services now available
Following the upgrade, Telstra International now offers 400G services on diverse routes, a significant development for organisations with requirements for large-scale data centre interconnects and high-bandwidth applications. The firm indicated plans are in place to introduce 800G services in the future as part of its network evolution strategy.
The new technologies are also intended to play an integral role in the company's broader goal to move towards a highly autonomous, data-driven network. The roadmap includes the introduction of predictive capacity management and enhanced service performance capabilities to enable more efficient operation and improved customer experience.
This transformation is aligned with the objectives of the Telstra Autonomous Network (TAN) programme, which aims to convert the company's infrastructure to a highly automated and AI-driven architecture by 2030 through an API-first approach.
Artificial Intelligence and future plans
Beyond capacity and provisioning improvements, Telstra International is looking to infuse AI and advanced data management into its operational framework. This will include the rollout of automated traffic management, incident avoidance measures and stronger network security features.
"These technologies will help us to execute our network transformation ambition under our Connected Future 30 strategy, which includes developing our Network as a Product and investing in infrastructure over the five-year strategic plan. We're focused on elevating the customer experience by infusing AI into our network, with dynamic traffic management, incident avoidance and enhanced network security," said Roary.
Telstra International's network extends to connections in close to 200 countries and territories, utilising over 30 cable systems that span more than 400,000 kilometres. Its network includes access to 38 cable landing stations and licenses across Asia, Australia, Europe and the Americas.
The increase in network capacity and the company's stated plans signal Telstra International's intention to support growing connectivity and digital transformation requirements in the Asia Pacific region over the coming years.
