TELIA EXPANDS CIENA DEPLOYMENTS IN PAN-EUROPEAN NETWORK
Swedish Carrier Contracts With CIENA for Optical Transport Systems In Sweden, France, Germany, UK
Linthicum, MD — 10/11/1999Ciena Corporation (NASDAQ: CIEN) today announced that Telia AB of Sweden will deploy additional Ciena MultiWave Sentry™ optical transport systems throughout its backbone network. Under the first contract period (September 1999 through December 2000), Ciena expects to provide equipment and support for Telia's network spans in Sweden, France, Germany and the UK. Initial orders worth approximately $10 million (US) already have been received. Telia began initial deployments of optical transport systems from Ciena in 1998.
"As demand for seamless, high-bandwidth services throughout Europe continues to grow rapidly, Ciena's MultiWave Sentry systems provide Telia with an optical platform to cost-effectively deliver services," said Olle Blomdin, director, development transmission at Telia. "With Ciena's intelligent optical systems, Telia's network capacity is dramatically expanding, and it will be easier to deliver more high-bandwidth services faster."
"Ciena continues to provide intelligent optical networking solutions that give service providers like Telia an impressive competitive and economic advantage in an intensely aggressive marketplace," said Patrick Nettles, president and CEO at Ciena. "With the deployment of additional Ciena optical transport systems, Telia is able to meet a growing demand for broadband services in Europe while quickly transforming fiber into revenues."
Optical transport systems are the foundation for Ciena LightWorks™, an intelligent optical network architecture designed in conjunction with service providers to help carriers break free of the costs and complexities of the legacy network. Together with other intelligent optical solutions in the LightWorks architecture, Ciena's optical transport systems streamline the carrier network and dramatically reduce the cost of building and managing it.
Ciena Corporation's market-leading optical networking systems form the core for the new era of telecommunications networks worldwide. Ciena's LightWorks™ architecture changes the fundamental economics of service-provider networks by simplifying the network and reducing the cost to operate it. Additional information about Ciena can be found at http://www.ciena.com.
Telia competes in one of the world's most competitive telecommunications markets which places huge demands on service levels, technological excellence and flexibility. Telia is currently developing new markets and services while rapidly expanding its geographic customer base outside Sweden's borders. Telia is a leading supplier of telecom-based information services in the Nordic/Baltic region. At the same time, "seamless" pan-European and global services are being provided through powerful alliances and partnerships in Europe and around the world. Annual turnover in 1998 reached more than $6 billion and the number of employees was about 30,000.
Forward-looking statements in this release, including deployment by Telia AB of additional Ciena MultiWave Sentry™ optical transport systems throughout its backbone network and the expectation that Ciena will provide equipment and support for Telia's network spans in Sweden, France, Germany and the UK, are based on information available to the Company as of the date hereof. The Company's actual results could differ materially from those stated or implied in such forward-looking statements, due to risks and uncertainties associated with the Company's business, which include the risk factors disclosed in the Company's Post-Effective Amendment No. 2 on Form S-3 to Form S-4 Registration Statement filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Aug. 30, 1999.
Nicole Anderson
Ciena Corporation
(877) 857 -7377
pr@ciena.com
Marie Downing
Ciena Corporation
(888) 243-6223
ir@ciena.com
