view printer-friendly version

CIENA SUPPLIES LIGHTWORKS SOLUTIONS TO IRELAND'S ESAT TELECOM, FURTHER EXPANDING EUROPEAN PRESENCE

Esat Telecom, CIENA To Connect Ireland And UK With All-Optical Transport Systems

Ciena Corporation (CIEN) today announced that it is supplying intelligent optical transport solutions to Irish telecommunications carrier Esat Telecom (Nasdaq/Easdaq: ESAT; ISE: ESAT.I), further expanding Ciena's growing base of European customers. Under the agreement with Esat, Ciena will provide systems from its LightWorks™ suite of intelligent optical solutions for deployment in network spans connecting Ireland to the UK.

At nearly 260 km long, the companies believe that Esat Telecom's cable links between Ireland and the UK represent some of the longest unamplified multi-channel optical fiber spans in commercial deployment. Ciena's extended-reach optical technologies make it possible to network optical systems located in Ireland and the UK without intervening amplification and regeneration.

"We're building a state-of-the-art infrastructure to take on the booming wholesale and ISP markets in Ireland and the UK, and our goals for establishing market share are very aggressive. Broadband connections that can be turned on fast are instrumental," said Nic Stirk, Director of Engineering at Esat Telecom. "Ciena can quickly deliver the high-bandwidth solutions for the applications we need, and we like the intelligence and value that Ciena brings to the network."

"This deployment is particularly important to Ciena. It represents further development of our European operations and a significant entry into the growing Irish market," said Patrick Nettles, Ciena's president and CEO. "Our comprehensive suite of carrier-class intelligent optical networking solutions gave us an edge in winning this key project. Ciena's ability to quickly extend LightWorks solutions to support long unamplified network spans further rounds out our networking portfolio and is further evidence of our leadership in the industry."

Ciena's optical transport solutions are a key element of Ciena LightWorks, a comprehensive blueprint for building intelligent optical networks. With this next-generation architecture, Ciena enables carriers around the world to rapidly transition to dramatically simpler yet higher capacity networks while achieving greatly reduced equipment and operating costs. Ciena's recently unveiled LightWorks Toolkit™ offers technologies to help carriers build and deliver differentiating dynamic optical services.