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INTERNATIONAL TELCO CHOOSES CIENA OPTICAL NETWORKING GEAR TO MAXIMISE EUROPEAN FIBRE NETWORK

to create new high-bandwidth infrastructure spanning Germany and former Eastern bloc

Zephyr Communications, an international, full service IP communications services company, today announced that it has selected Ciena's MultiWave Sentry 4000ä as the long haul platform for its newly-created European fibre network.

The Zephyr network will link Germany, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Austria and Poland with a flexible, high-capacity fibre infrastructure. This will also connect to Zephyr's other European networks, providing a fast, reliable communications link between Western and Eastern Europe.

The network is based on Ciena's Sentry 4000 long-haul optical transport system. The Sentry 4000 is a 40-channel system capable of carrying up to 100 Gb/s of data. This scalability and flexibility, plus the completely open architecture, ensures that Zephyr can perform wholesale bandwidth swaps with other carriers, as well as enabling the transportation of multiple traffic types including voice, video and data.

"With one of the largest fibre backbone networks in Central Europe, Zephyr, with Ciena's DWDM technology, is set to become a leading provider of high-quality managed bandwidth services in the region," said Dr. Terrence McGarty, chairman and chief executive officer
of Zephyr.

"We selected Ciena as its technology leads the way in optical communications. It is in the unique position of being almost an industry standard in the US and with the proven ability to deliver a turnkey solution in Europe, in tight timeframes, it matched our needs exactly," he continued.

"Eastern European economies are growing fast, and a high-capacity telecommunications infrastructure needs to be in place to support this," said Rafael de Ory, Ciena's managing director for Europe, Middle East and Africa. "This agreement enables Ciena to be part of a key European roll-out of next generation communications and ensure that Zephyr's network has the efficiency and flexibility it requires."