LightRiver's Factory Built Network®, Supported by Ciena's 6500 Packet-Optical Platform, Empowers Texas Telecommunications Provider With Best-of-Breed Network Upgrade, Elevating Its Capabilities and Offerings to End-Users

LightRiver Technologies, Inc., a leader in Factory Built Network® design and commissioning, announces today that GVTC Communications, a full-service telecommunications provider, located north of San Antonio, Texas, with more than 2,200 miles of fiber optic cable, has selected LightRiver to perform a significant network upgrade and expansion.

Utilizing its Factory Built Network® approach, supported by the 6500 Packet-Optical Platform from Ciena®, LightRiver has provided a full turnkey solution from consultative engineering and architectural design support to manufacture certified installation of the network. This enables GVTC to leverage best-in-class, feature-rich packet and optical technologies with multilayer end-to-end network management and planning for maximum scale and operational efficiencies.

This project has also helped further the goals of the GVTC GigaRegion®, in which the company has partnered with the Texas cities of Boerne, Bulverde and Gonzales to deliver gigabit Internet service to the region, supporting economic development and higher quality of life for local residents and businesses.

Ciena's programmable 6500 Packet-Optical Platform offers unparalleled integrated packet-optical capabilities for customizable packet service delivery from the edge to the core. Coupled with LightRiver's Factory Built Network® offering, this allowed for the construction and deployment of a high-performing, reliable transport network with speed and cost-efficiency.

With the network upgrade, GVTC now has the ability to build unique low-latency rings between San Antonio and Austin, giving the company the ability to meet the strict requirements of content providers and wireless carriers. This platform will support GVTC's continued aggressive expansion in offering carrier-class Ethernet access and protected transport throughout the San Antonio, Austin, and Central Texas regional markets.

"Our expanding footprint is incredibly unique and the first-class engineering services from LightRiver, paired with equipment from Ciena, are ushering in an exciting time at GVTC," states Josh Pettiette, GVTC Vice President, Product, Business Development, and Strategic Planning. "We built a dynamic network to deliver carrier-class Ethernet solutions, with capacities exceeding 100 Gbps. These services deliver the protection and low-latency our customers demand in order to support synchronous data replication and other latency-sensitive applications. GVTC will now be able to easily facilitate network-to-network interfaces and deliver a highly resilient and dependable network connecting rural and metro markets."

LightRiver's Certified Integration Services offered technical support during the planning, implementation and deployment of Ciena's equipment into GVTC's network. The company's technical staff provided network design review, site surveys and recommendations for site readiness, along with detailed engineering and comprehensive methods of procedure for installation, and test and integration.

"At LightRiver, we take great pride in providing the design, deployment and care of complex, best-of-breed transport networks," says Mike Jonas, President of Global Sales and Marketing for LightRiver. "We specifically tailored this solution for GVTC, in concert with Ciena, and built and deployed the highest-performing, most reliable transport network quickly and cost-efficiently. GVTC is now able to handle next-gen traffic through its carrier-grade network, managing increased bandwidth loads and providing services to customers that are not found anywhere else in the area."

About LightRiver Technologies, Inc.
LightRiver Technologies designs, engineers, commissions and supports next generation solutions for mission-critical clients that require the highest capacity, reliability and resiliency that today's optical communications technology can deliver. A leader in integrating the multi-vendor, Factory Built Network® solution, LightRiver is an expert in Tier 1 Packet Optical, DWDM/ROADM, MPLS and Carrier Ethernet systems, and in successfully migrating legacy networks to the next generation. LightRiver delivers unique value across the United States with turnkey solutions, carrier-grade quality and unparalleled customer care in multi-technology networking. For more information, please visit www.lightriver.com.

About GVTC
GVTC is an award winning fiber optics communications provider delivering high-speed Internet, digital cable TV, phone and interactive home security monitoring to residential and business customers to areas of far north San Antonio, the Texas Hill Country and South Central Texas. Through its fiber network GVTC offers broadband speeds up to 1 Gbps and symmetrical broadband connections, up to 100 Mbps. GVTC offers wholesale carrier transport between San Antonio, Austin, Dallas and Houston, with unique access to remote Texas markets. The company organized the GVTC GigaRegion®, a unique private-public partnership, with the cities of Boerne, Bulverde and Gonzales. The GVTC GigaRegion® markets the benefits of a fiber network, along with economic incentives, to compete for jobs and improve quality of life. The company's philanthropic arm, The GVTC Foundation, is celebrating its 10th anniversary in 2016. The Foundation has donated over $2 million dollars to charitable organizations throughout the GVTC service area.

About Ciena
Ciena (NYSE: CIEN) is the network specialist. We collaborate with customers worldwide to unlock the strategic potential of their networks and fundamentally change the way they perform and compete. Ciena leverages its deep expertise in packet and optical networking and distributed software automation to deliver solutions in alignment with its OPⁿ architecture for next-generation networks. We enable a high-scale, programmable infrastructure that can be controlled and adapted by network-level applications, and provide open interfaces to coordinate computing, storage and network resources in a unified, virtualized environment. For updates on Ciena news, follow us on Twitter @Ciena or on LinkedIn.

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