New Zealand network operator Chorus has awarded Alcatel-Lucent a five-year managed services contract covering 24/7 monitoring of the operator's nationwide wholesale copper network.
Under the agreement, Alcatel-Lucent will provide real-time monitoring and analysis services from a new network operation center in Hamilton.
The facility will work closely with Alcatel-Lucent's global NOC in Bangalore, India to provide monitoring aimed at preventing faults, improving network availability and ensuring continuous service quality.
Chorus owns New Zealand's nationwide copper network infrastructure. It inherited this from Telecom New Zealand, which split into wholesale and retail divisions as part of winning the contract to supply the majority of the state-led Ultrafast Broadband and Rural Broadband Initiative.
As part of the projects Chorus is working with the government to deploy a fiber network that will cover 75% of the population. Alcatel-Lucent is supplying high-speed broadband technology for the rollout.
“Working with Alcatel-Lucent, we are transforming our systems to facilitate future growth while ensuring we are equipped to deliver the highest quality of service and customer satisfaction,” Alcatel-Lucent CTO Ewen Powell said.
“Alcatel-Lucent’s expertise in managed services will provide us with new levels of insight across our network of local exchanges, cabinets and copper and fiber cables, elevating our capability to deliver the future of telecommunications for New Zealand.”