Tellabs Inspire Magazine: Innovation Of The Isthmus

article reprint — TELLABS INSPIRE june 2008

Innovation on the Isthmus Navega.com finds opportunity in Central America’s enterprise and carrier’s carrier markets. By M.J. Richter

Competition to provide telecom services has been heating up in the tropics of Central America. With a historically low penetration of landline service throughout the region, wireless competitors have been battling one another for years in an effort to satisfy pent-up demand. In addition, as most of the nations in the region begin to open their fixed-line markets, albeit to varying degrees, providers from outside of Central America are moving in to offer voice and Internet-access services. Yet in both the wireless and wireline sectors, competitors have focused largely on wooing consumers, leaving the enterprise and “carrier’s carrier” markets open for the taking. Navega.com sees that void as an opportunity. Established specifically to tap the business and carrier sectors of the Central American telecom market, Navega.com launched operations in 2000 in its home country of Guatemala, and has gradually extended its reach throughout the region. In addition to Guatemala, the company has now built out its fiber-based network to serve El Salvador, Nicaragua, Honduras, Panama and, to a limited extent, Costa Rica, which has not yet deregulated its telecom market. The network provides fixed and mobile services to corporate customers. Operating as the only carrier’s carrier in the Central American isthmus, Navega.com also offers transport services for cable TV companies, paging operators and Internet service providers. The company also terminates international services

“We are working with Tellabs to determine what other services we can offer our customers with this new platform,”

offered by North America-based carriers, and Navega.com has begun supporting corporate markets such as banking, heavy industry, manufacturing and other commerce-oriented enterprises.

A (Net)work in Progress

The Navega.com backbone network consists of approximately 7,000 km of terrestrial fiber throughout Central America, including last-mile —Roberto Rodriguez, fiber deployments to customer Navega.com premises in major cities. Yet vast portions of the region are highly rural, which makes fiber a difficult and expensive proposition. To serve customers in these less urbanized areas, Navega.com provides network access via WiMAX-based wireless local-loop technology connected to a terrestrial fiber-optic backbone. Ownership stakes in the undersea cables enable the carrier to link its Central American business and government customers with the rest of the world. Via its primary data center and disaster-recovery

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article reprint — INNOVATION ON THE ISTHMUS

“We studied different options: IP, a pure Ethernet network, packet over SDH, several different platforms,” Rodriguez said. “We chose MPLS because we saw the opportunity to bring to our markets a new technology and new services on a less-expensive platform.” The carrier began the migration from TDM- to MPLS-based technology in 2004, when it deployed its first metro Ethernet links, in Guatemala. As the company continues to expand its local coverage in each of its Central American markets, Navega.com now has implemented the Tellabs® 8600 Managed Edge System as the cornerstone of its ongoing TDM-to-MPLS migration strategy. By the end of 2005, Navega.com had its Central American MPLS backbone running and, in 2006, interconnected with U.S. carriers via a connection point in Florida to enable the expanded MPLS service portfolio. Since launching service in 2000 in its home country of Guatemala, Navega.com has expanded its fiber-based network to serve Costa Rica, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama. Its fiber backbone spans about 7,000 km and includes last-mile fiber deployments to customer premises.

facilities at Terremark Worldwide’s NAP of the Americas in Miami, Navega.com ensures the reliability and security of its domestic and international offerings.

“The Tellabs 8600 system supports 2G and 3G transport, delivers Ethernet and IP VPN services and is able to aggregate broadband services, which means that Navega.com can converge all of its services on a single platform,” said Tse Fu Wong, Tellabs executive account manager. “That translates into reduced CapEx and the ability to scale the network flexibly and affordably as Navega.com covers more geographic territory and adds more customers.”

Expanding the Service Portfolio

The carrier started out with a TDM-based network and, as bandwidth and service demands increased, eventually turned to the Tellabs® 6300 Managed Transport System for relief. With its support for carrier Ethernet services and transport over SDH networks, the Tellabs 6300 system enables Navega.com to: J

Add data capabilities to its existing network in order to deliver carrier-class Ethernet services.

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Boost overall transport capacity.

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Reduce costs and complexity by consolidating its transport networks on a single platform.

Navega.com also uses the Tellabs 6300 system to interconnect, through the NAP of the Americas, its local, regional and international dedicated links. As a result, customers have access to global communications services. Navega.com also relies on the Tellabs® 8100 Managed Access System to provide international interconnection services to regional corporations.

Moving Forward with MPLS After only a few years of operation, Navega.com, like most service providers around the world, realized that TDM-based technology was ill-equipped to handle the insatiable customer appetite for bandwidth and services. Roberto Rodriguez, vice president of marketing and sales for Navega.com, said the company found itself squeezed between the need to transport more bandwidth and advanced services and the reality of shrinking margins on transmission services. The carrier began searching for a technology that could boost network capacity, accommodate new customers and reduce CapEx and OpEx.

Today, Navega.com offers a growing portfolio of services to its corporate, governmental and carrier customers. Transporting data, video and voice traffic, the carrier provides private-line services based on legacy TDM/SDH technology, metro Ethernet services, IP VPN services and ATM/Frame Relay interconnections. In addition to relying on its MPLS-based network to expand and solidify its operations in Central America, Navega.com plans to use the platform to help mobile operators implement next-generation technologies, such as 3G, that require more network bandwidth and flexibility. A carrier’s carrier at work.

Rodriguez said, “We are installing a huge MPLS network, and they [mobile operators] are moving to 3G mobile technology, so the idea is to take advantage of our IP/MPLS platform to help mobile operators in the region move faster into broadband services. With this platform, Navega.com is able to transport other types of services, such as bandwidth on demand and videoconferencing.”

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article reprint — INNOVATION ON THE ISTHMUS

Staying Ahead of the Competition Nearly a decade after first entering the Central American markets, Navega.com is still the only carrier’s carrier in town, and faces limited competition for enterprise customers. As Rodriguez pointed out, Navega.com is evolving rapidly into a full-scale telecommunications service provider in Guatemala, Nicaragua, El Salvador and Honduras. Although Costa Rica remains the only monopolistic telecom market in the region, the country recently signed the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA), thus agreeing to deregulate its market — eventually. Navega.com already is positioning itself for that day. The

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“We are working with Tellabs to determine what other services we can offer our customers with this new platform,” Rodriguez said. “That is the most important thing at this point: to offer new ways to interconnect, because our customers also are always looking for ways to operate more cost-effectively.”

SDH Synchronous Digital Hierarchy TDM Time Division Multiplexing 3G Third-Generation VPN Virtual Private Network WiMAX Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access

Acronym ATM Asynchronous Transfer Mode MPLS Multiprotocol Label Switching NAP Network Access Point NNI Network-to-Network Interconnection

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carrier has a private-line deal with the two state-owned companies in Costa Rica: Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad (ICE) and with ICE’s subsidiary, RACSA, enabling Costa Rican customers to connect, via Navega.com’s MPLS cloud, to their Central American neighbors.

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Statements herein may contain projections or other forward-looking statements regarding future events, products, features, technology and resulting commercial or technological benefits and advantages. These statements are for discussion purposes only, are subject to change and are not to be construed as instructions, product specifications, guarantees or warranties. Actual results may differ materially. The following trademarks and service marks are owned by Tellabs Operations, Inc., or its affiliates in the United States and/or other countries: TELLABS®, TELLABS and T symbol®, and T symbol®. Any other company or product names may be trademarks of their respective companies. © 2008 Tellabs. All rights reserved. 74.1971E – REV A – 6/2008