‘Cheaper connectivity’ as MTN tests Facebook’s voyager

The MTN group says it is the first mobile operator in the world to use the open optical packet transport platform, known as Voyager, after joining the Telecom Infra Project (TIP) earlier this year.

According to MTN: “The TIP initiative, which was launched in February 2016, is a global endeavour which brings together key stakeholders in the telecoms and technology space to collaborate on the development of new technologies and find fresh approaches to build and deploy telecom network infrastructure.”

“The project aims to reduce costs and increase the speed of rolling out internet connectivity.”

The organisation expressed delight about the development.

“As MTN, we are excited about the possibility of bringing more than 19Tbps of connectivity to the community, using open optical networking technology. Open platforms move away from the vendors’ proprietary platforms which usually come at a huge cost. This means that the roll out of the Voyager platform will enable operators to install a network at a lower cost, which in turn, will result in cheaper connectivity for customers,” Navi Naidoo, a group network technology officer at MTN, said in a stetement.

The company said the results of the Voyager test have been presented at the TIP Summit, currently underway in California, USA, with next steps being to obtain the necessary approvals and explore commercial rollout of the platform.

“It’s great to see what we have been able to accomplish with TIP members since we launched in February. The Open Optical Packet Transport project group, where MTN has worked closely to field-test Voyager, is a critical part of advancing our goals,” Hans-Juergen Schmidtke, director of engineering at Facebook, said.

“Voyager’s tests show that open and collaborative approaches can help increase the speed of network innovation and implementation, and represent an important step in the development of an open system that will increase the efficiency of fibre networks.”

Naidoo reiterated Schmidtke’s sentiments, saying through further collaboration with the TIP community, MTN could unlock innovation faster and enable greater efficiency, in line with the company’s vision to lead the delivery of a bold, new digital world to customers.