Infinera partners with Orange to boost France's network capabilities

Infinera, a key player in the global optical networking solutions and semiconductors market, has announced a long-term partnership with Orange, a telecommunications operator. This collaboration focuses on optimising Orange's international backbone network and marks a significant step in bolstering Orange's network capabilities across France.

The partnership will heavily rely on Infinera's GX Series compact modular networking platform. It was selected due to its high-capacity connectivity combined with financial feasibility. The partnership facilitates Orange's goal of providing exceptional services to its wholesale customers, a necessary move as the demand for bandwidth continues to grow.

The multinational project involves deploying Infinera's recent generation of coherent engines and optical line systems. Orange and Infinera recently completed a similar network rollout in the USA and will now concentrate on connecting Paris, Marseille, and Bordeaux in France. With a span of 3,000 kilometres, this network will include multiple hub cities, submarine landing stations on France's Atlantic and Mediterranean coasts, and connection points for European data centres and other Orange affiliates.

Aurélien Vigano, VP of International Transmission Networks at Orange, expressed his excitement about the new partnership, stating, "By partnering with Infinera, we are glad to add another key supplier to our network to reinforce our core backbone infrastructure across France, double our route between three strategic connectivity hubs, and add resilience and capacity to our network."

"With Infinera's flexible GX platform, we will be able to seamlessly reinforce our network as new technologies become available, enabling us to keep pace with rapidly growing customer demands, while providing the best customer experience."

Nick Walden, Senior Vice President of Worldwide Sales at Infinera, also expressed his sentiments about the partnership, stating, "Infinera looks forward to our long-term partnership with Orange to deliver our GX Series solution on Orange's new and existing optical transport routes, expanding Orange's offerings to network operators and wholesale carriers with resilient and reliable global connectivity capability."

Orange boasts a significant worldwide presence as a leading telecommunication and digital services operator. Its operations span 26 countries, and business services are provided in 220 countries and territories. Orange's network prowess is evident from its international networks and infrastructure, which boast global connectivity via 40 submarine cable systems extending 450,000 km, an extensive system of 800 points of presence across over 100 countries, and 45,000 km of optical backbone terrestrial links across the US., Europe, Singapore, and Africa.

Moreover, Infinera is a global supplier of innovative open optical networking solutions and advanced optical semiconductors that enable carriers, cloud operators, governments, and enterprises to scale network bandwidth, accelerate service innovation, and automate network operations. Infinera solutions deliver industry-leading economics and performance in long-haul, submarine, data centre interconnect, and metro transport applications.