Telecom Ramblings

Cisco and TMobile Czech Republic today announced the mobile operators new IP backbone, based on Cisco’s CRS-1 router platform.  Cisco is also helping out with gateways and other gear.  The new backbone will support current plans for 3PPP Release 4 and eventual HSPA and LTE deployments for their 5.4M subscribers.  They are clearly preparing for a data explosion, eh?

Key to the new network is 6,000km of fiber lines, upon which the IP backbone will run to the tune of 60x10Gbps.  That’s a lot of fiber considering the fact that the Czech Republic is only about 400km by 200km, and you could fit 122 of them inside the boundaries of the USA.  Of course if you did that you’d 457,500 route miles of fiber, not that we ought to include Alaska and other remote areas in the US at a similar density in any real world comparison.  Still I wonder how much backhaul is via fiber versus wireless in the Czech Republic.