Ciena announced on Monday that Vietnamese telco Viettel has deployed its 800G coherent optics technology to boost the service capacity of its optical backbone network, which will also help Viettel accelerate its 5G rollout.

Following the upgrade to Ciena’s 6500 Packet-Optical Platform powered by the vendor’s programmable WaveLogic 5 Extreme (WL5e), Viettel’s backbone now supports 600-Gbps wavelengths that span distances of more than 1,000 km.

Ciena said the upgrade effectively boosts Viettel’s backbone capacity by a factor of six from 4 Tbps to 25.2 Tbps, significantly increasing connectivity speed, space, and power efficiencies.

Viettel is also using Ciena’s Navigator Network Control Suite to automate network operations and manage the network throughout its entire operational lifecycle.

Viettel commissioned the upgrade to support an expected demand in local and international data traffic driven by hyperscale cloud and AI-led applications and services. Viettel also wants to fortify its backbone to support its expansion of 5G services across Vietnam.

Meanwhile, Ciena said that Viettel has wrapped up a trial of its next-gen WL6e technology, in which it doubled Viettel’s existing fibre wavelength capacity from 800 Gbps to 1.6 Tbps. The trial paves the way for Viettel to upgrade its optical backbone in future to support 800GbE connectivity services, said Wendy Le, country lead for Vietnam at Ciena.

“Optical backbones are critical to providing the connectivity needed to continue Vietnam’s reputation as a fast-growing digital economy in Southeast Asia,” Le said in a statement. “Together with Viettel, Ciena is helping build the connectivity foundation essential to help Vietnam maintain its pace of growth in the AI era, all while optimizing carbon footprint, power, and capacity.”