New links capable of delivering ten times more traffic capacity, nationwide. Allows CPs to connect multiple sites far more efficiently.

Openreach, BT’s local access network business, today outlined plans to extend its suite of high-bandwidth optical services for communications provider customers. The new capability includes the first ever UK-wide 100Gbps service, which is capable of delivering ten times more traffic capacity than existing solutions and will become available during April 2014.

Supported by Ciena’s 6500 Packet-Optical Platformⁱ, the new services will enable communications providers (CPs) to transport larger amounts of data, over longer distances, in a more cost effective way. This will in-turn allow them to offer flexible, high-bandwidth, multisite connectivity and cloud-based services to their enterprise and data centre customers.

The optical services will also give enterprises and storage providers the tools to offer a broader range of services and applications, including the ultra-low latency facilities required by particular industries – for example high frequency trading in the financial sector or synchronous data backup. They will also enable businesses to locate in the most strategic locations, with the assurance of having access to high bandwidth, high quality connectivity.

Jon Hurry, MD, Strategy, Commercial, Portfolio & Policy, Openreach said, “As more and more businesses move to high-bandwidth, cloud based services and applications, our CP customers are looking to support them with a much broader range of high-quality connectivity options.

“These new optical services from Openreach are future-proof, and they take advantage of BT’s unrivalled investment in fibre infrastructure across the UK. They also come with the backing of our combined professional service teams, giving customers access to world class expertise and support from both Openreach and Ciena.”

Nigel Williams, VP global channels and strategic alliances, Ciena said, “Demand for high-bandwidth services and business critical applications is increasing at an exponential rate. Ciena is committed to helping partners, such as Openreach, monetise their network investments to compete in the rapidly evolving marketplace.  Expanding our relationship with Openreach ensures that providers get the flexibility and scalability they need to build a competitive advantage in the marketplace, offer a broader portfolio of next-generation services, and the applications critical to the success of their enterprise clients.”

For further information on Openreach’s Optical Services visit the Openreach website.

Notes to editorsFor further informationEnquiries about this news release should be made to the BT Group Newsroom on its 24-hour number: 020 7356 5369. From outside the UK dial + 44 20 7356 5369. All news releases can be accessed at our web site: http://www.btplc.com/News

ⁱ The Ciena 6500 is a next generation Optical network/equipment solution that enables us to offer higher bandwidth networks in a far more efficient way. It offers Ethernet, TDM (time division multiplexing) and all other major data transport interfaces over a single WDM (wavelength division multiplexing) platform.  Launching it into our portfolio brings you coherent optical processing capability and lays the foundation for bandwidths to increase from 10Gbps to 40Gbps and to 100Gbps and beyond.

BT TSO have already built a next generation Optical network across 120 core locations. Having the Ciena 6500 in our portfolio allows us to provide the access tails into this network from other CP’s Ciena based core networks and provide point to point Optical services at 40Gbps and 100Gbps as a single discreet interface as opposed to having to multiply up 10Gbps circuits to achieve the bandwidths required. Openreach Product Information for Ciena 6500 and the Ciena 6500 Overview

The new services meet requirements for:

• Multiple 10 Gbps applications, and 40 Gbps or 100 Gbps wavelength services
• Access tails into core networks via coloured ‘friendly’ alien wavelength handover. This addresses the growing national services market in a more cost effective manner for the CP by allowing a non-bookend solution i.e. each access tail only has a transponder at the end customer and connects directly through the CP core network, thus only needing 2 transponders for the end to end national service. This compares very favourably with the current ‘bookend, CP-Bookend’ solution where 6 transponders are required.
• Multisite configurations via reconfigurable optical add-drop multiplexers (ROADM). This switch capability is achieved through the use of wavelength selective switching modules. It provides the ability to remotely switch traffic and reflects a growing market need to connect multiple local sites together, for example a cloud backup service connecting the enterprise to primary and secondary datacentres.

Key features:

• Electronically compensates for dispersion to allow transport of high bandwidths in a more cost effective way
• Provides a more efficient way to connect multiple sites
• Cost effective for long distance services – serving beyond the 103km max route distance of current OSA capability (with no distance limitations)
• Minimises footprint and power requirements through a choice of four chassis types
• Meets ultra-low latency needs of key market sectors and applications such as high frequency trading or synchronous data backup

Provides more flexible Resilience options including Line/Trunk Protection, Wavelength Protection and Client Protection.

About Ciena & Ciena 6500:
The Ciena 6500 leads the market with coherent 40Gbps / 100Gbps solutions, with over 35,000 coherent line interfaces already shipped to over 150 customers globally, with more than 35 million coherent kilometers deployed.

In the September 2013 market survey by analyst firm Infonetics (20 Service Providers making up 31% of the global CAPEX), Ciena was ranked as market leader in all surveyed key technology areas:

• #1 Optical and switching suppliers
• #1 Metro edge Packet Optical transport
• #1 Metro regional Packet Optical transport
• #1 Optical control plane.

They were also ranked no.1 leader in the areas of product reliability, management tools, breadth of solutions (joint), technology Innovation and R&D investment.

About Openreach
Openreach is responsible for the first mile of the UK access network - the copper wires and fibre connecting homes and businesses to their local telephone exchanges. Openreach leads the deployment of BT Group’s £2.5bn commercial roll-out of fibre, delivering fibre broadband services to communities across the UK as well as installing and maintaining the communications infrastructure that links homes, businesses, public and voluntary sector organisations to their Communications Providers' networks.

About BT
BT is one of the world’s leading providers of communications services and solutions, serving customers in more than 170 countries. Its principal activities include the provision of networked IT services globally; local, national and international telecommunications services to its customers for use at home, at work and on the move; broadband, TV and internet products and services; and converged fixed/mobile products and services. BT consists principally of five lines of business: BT Global Services, BT Business, BT Consumer, BT Wholesale and Openreach.

For the year ended 31 March 2013, BT Group’s reported revenue was £18,103m with reported profit before taxation of £2,315m.

British Telecommunications plc (BT) is a wholly-owned subsidiary of BT Group plc and encompasses virtually all businesses and assets of the BT Group. BT Group plc is listed on stock exchanges in London and New York.

For more information, visit www.btplc.com.

About CienaCiena (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 http://www.linkedin.com/company/ciena. Investors are encouraged to review the Investors section of our website at www.ciena.com/investors, where we routinely post press releases, SEC filings, recent news, financial results, and other announcements. From time to time we exclusively post material information to this website along with other disclosure channels that we use.

Note to Ciena InvestorsForward-looking statements. This press release contains certain forward-looking statements based on current expectations, forecasts and assumptions that involve risks and uncertainties. These statements are based on information available to the Company as of the date hereof; and Ciena's actual results could differ materially from those stated or implied, due to risks and uncertainties associated with its business, which include the risk factors disclosed in its Report on Form 10-K, which Ciena filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on December 20, 2013. Forward-looking statements include statements regarding Ciena's expectations, beliefs, intentions or strategies regarding the future and can be identified by forward-looking words such as "anticipate," "believe," "could," "estimate," "expect," "intend," "may," "should," "will," and "would" or similar words. Ciena assumes no obligation to update the information included in this press release, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.