Nortel Networks has been awarded a contract to build a nationwide optical backbone network for Iraq’s only wireline telecom carrier.

Iraq Telecommunications & Post will pay Nortel $20 million for a 5000-kilometer optical network connecting 35 cities. The network will be made up of seven rings, each with a capacity of 160 Gb/s. And it will be built using Nortel’s Common Photonic Layer and Optical Multiservice Edge 6500 platforms.

Nortel expects to begin shipping products for the network in the first quarter of 2007 with completion dependent on security conditions in the war-torn country, a Nortel spokesperson said. If security doesn’t hamper the project, it could be complete in 14 months, he said.

In 2004, Nortel built a dense wavelength-division multiplexing network connecting the Iraqi city of Basra with the capitol city, Baghdad.

Also in 2004, the U.S. Department of Defense awarded Lucent Technologies a $75 million contract to restore phone service in Iraq. That contract followed a $25 million contract awarded to Lucent by Bechtel in 2003 to restore phone service in Baghdad.

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