Bell Atlantic Approves and Orders CIENA's MultiWave Sentry
First RBOC Deployment of DWDM For Revenue-Bearing Traffic
Linthicum, MD — 05/05/1999Ciena Corporation (NASDAQ: CIEN) today announced that Bell Atlantic has approved Ciena's MultiWave Sentry(TM) dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) system for deployment in Bell Atlantic's core network.
During its fiscal first quarter, Ciena shipped equipment for orders received and the equipment is now carrying live traffic in Bell Atlantic's network.
Bell Atlantic has deployed the MultiWave Sentry between two central offices in Freehold and New Brunswick, New Jersey. Ciena believes this marks the first time that a regional Bell operating company (RBOC) has deployed the DWDM technology in its network for customer revenue-bearing traffic.
Today, Bell Atlantic handles more data traffic than voice with more than 16 million data lines in place - a 40 percent increase from 1997. Ciena's MultiWave systems allow Bell Atlantic to scale the network to accommodate the needs of customers in a timely manner.
This first office application will pave the way toward a full optical network architecture. Currently, the MultiWave systems are providing immediate bandwidth relief for Bell Atlantic's interoffice facilities so that new fiber is not needed. DWDM extends the life of the current fiber-optic plant and at the same time provides a platform for the future.
``The feature set within the MultiWave Sentry, including the DirectConnect capability, makes Bell Atlantic's initial deployment a building block for any desired growth to an optical network,'' said Patrick Nettles, Ciena's president and chief executive officer. ``MultiWave Sentry has the flexibility to handle all types and speeds of traffic, such as ATM, IP and SONET/SDH, so it really provides a base that can accommodate current needs while scaling well for network growth.''
Ciena Corporation's market leading optical networking systems form the core of telecommunications networks worldwide. Ciena's LightWorks(tm) Initiative changes the fundamental economics of service provider networks by simplifying the network architecture and reducing the cost to operate it. Ciena's networking solutions utilize bandwidth expanding dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) technology and include the MultiWave® family of products for long-haul, short-haul and metropolitan applications. Ciena's CoreDirector(tm), an intelligent optical core switch, delivers dynamic provisioning, grooming, flexible capacity management and survivability. Through its Ciena Services subsidiary, Ciena provides a range of engineering, furnishing and installation (EF&I) services for telecommunications service providers in the areas of transport, switching and wireless communications.
Forward-looking statements in this release 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 difficulty in anticipating core demand for bandwidth as well as other risk factors disclosed in the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K, as filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on December 9, 1998, as supplemented by the Company's Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q as filed with the Commission on February 18, 1999, and as updated and restated into ``plain English'' format in a Form 8K filed April 5, 1999.
Nicole Anderson
Ciena Corporation
(877) 857 -7377
pr@ciena.com
Marie Downing
Ciena Corporation
(888) 243-6223
ir@ciena.com
