The goal is to meet the increase in data traffic – and demand for bandwidth – in the state, which grew 200% from January to July 2020 compared to the same period in 2019.
MOB Telecom, a Brazilian telecommunications services operator, is investing in the expansion of the transmission capacity of the network built in the Ceará Digital Beltway by a consortium formed by the company and two other major operators in the Northeast region. To do this, it is relying on Padtec’s new generation of 800 Gb/s transponders which will be used to light up the CDC section between the capital Fortaleza and the municipality of Juazeiro do Norte.
Providing the fixed internet connection to almost half of the population of Ceará, the Digital Beltway has become a driver for the economic growth within the state. Today, more than 14,000 kilometers of optical fibers are lit by the CDC to connect the more than 180 municipalities in Ceará. Data released by Etice (Ceará’s Information Technology Company) shows that broadband consumption in the Digital Beltway grew 200% between January and July of 2020 as compared to the same period in 2019.
According to Morgana Jacomini, MOB Telecom’s Director of Engineering, the changes in people’s habits and needs, caused by the social isolation of the Covid-19 pandemic in Brazil, drove an increase in traffic in all regions of Ceará. “At MOB, we have seen an increase of more than 40% in the volume of data transmitted over our networks since the second half of March last year”, says the executive. “Padtec’s DWDM solution allows us to keep up with this increase in demand and expand our operations in the market, and it prepares our optical network for scalable growth in data traffic capacity”, she adds.
To light up the operator’s new route between Fortaleza and the city of Juazeiro do Norte, Padtec supplied the latest 800 Gb/s transponders. In total, there are more than 2,000 kilometers of optical networks lit to connect the cities of Ceará.
Part of the high capacity DWDM network of the Ceará Digital Beltway, configured for up to 40 channels of 100 Gb/s, this route was close to reaching its maximum transmission capacity. The use of Padtec’s new generation of transponders, with transmission rates of 200 Gb/s per optical channel, allowed for significant savings in the use of channels available in the system and also eliminated the need for signal regeneration along the route, contributing to the reduction of the deployment and maintenance costs of the terminals in the operator’s long distance optical system.
“We are excited about the beginning of the 800 Gb/s era in optical networks and being able to offer our customers and their users new features for a unique connectivity experience”, says Argemiro Sousa, Padtec’s business director. “We are also very pleased to continue contributing to the leveraging of the connections in the Northeast of the country. After all, one of the great benefits of connectivity is the promotion of regional development by allowing the effective integration between regions of the country and the world”, he adds.