Teaming with Ciena, Sprint demonstrates network readiness to support rapidly growing wireless and wireline data needs of customers

Sprint (NYSE:S) and Ciena (NASDAQ: CIEN) have teamed to achieve two significant milestones in speed and capacity on Sprint’s network:

• Earlier this year, the companies trialed, and Sprint has since deployed, one of the longest 100 Gigabits-per-second (Gbps) circuits in the United States with a live transmission that required no signal regeneration over a distance of 2,100 km, or 1,304 miles.

• Last month, the companies successfully completed a live 400Gbps trial on Sprint’s network.

The trials validate Sprint’s leadership in deploying new network technologies designed to meet exponential growth in demand for data by Sprint business and consumer customers. This includes bandwidth-intensive cloud services and other applications like streaming HD video, telepresence and high-capacity data center connectivity.

Until recently, the Sprint network offered wireline services at speeds of up to 10Gbps. The trials demonstrated the viability of using innovative technology to achieve speeds up to 10 times faster (and up to 40 times faster in the future), without requiring costly network upgrades to Sprint’s robust fiber infrastructure. Sprint Ethernet Wave Services will support 100Gbps speeds now, and Sprint expects to leverage Ciena’s coherent optical technology to support services operating at 400Gbps in the future.

Key results from the two field trials:

100Gbps: The 100Gbps circuit trialed earlier this year is now integrated into the Sprint optical network infrastructures and is in-serviced between Chicago and Fort Worth, Texas. The 100Gbps link uses Ciena WaveLogic 3 coherent optical processors on the 6500 Packet Optical Platform to enable Sprint to successfully transmit data at 100Gbps over the 2,100km (1,304-mile) circuit, with no regeneration of the signal at points in between. The longer distance between regeneration points provides reduced latency, hardware benefits and improved reliability, flexibility and performance for customers.

400Gbps: This trial was performed in the Silicon Valley area using existing Sprint fiber infrastructure and Ciena’s 6500 with WaveLogic 3 cards; this high-capacity link operated without error. This demonstrated the viability of using 400Gbps channels alongside existing channels carrying live customer traffic. As a result, Sprint foresees the opportunity to add a network equivalent of high-speed traffic lanes for customers with high-demand requirements.

“Customers have expressed their hunger for higher speed networks to support their substantial data needs, which we project will only continue to grow exponentially,” said Wayne Ward, vice president-Business and Product Development, Sprint. “The 400Gbps trial demonstrates our ability to offer higher speeds with our existing fiber, which means that our customers can feel assured that our network is future-proofed to meet their needs as they evolve. The delivery of 100Gbps and 400Gbps speeds will be critical as we launch our Ethernet Wave Services and support a growing wireless infrastructure.”

As announced in 2012, Sprint is upgrading its optical backbone network with Ciena’s 6500 Packet-Optical Platform as part of its Network Vision initiative. The advanced network is expected to enable Sprint to enhance transport network scalability, cost and performance. By adding Ciena's coherent optical technology to the mix, Sprint can scale its core network initially to 40Gbps and 100Gbps, and later to 400Gbps and beyond, as network demands dictate.

“Service providers are increasingly challenged to satisfy surging demand for bandwidth-hungry services and applications,” said Francois Locoh-Donou, senior vice president-Global Products Group, Ciena. “Ciena’s market-leading coherent technology offers the flexibility, programmability, scalability and cost-efficiency needed to meet these demands at 100Gbps speeds, 400Gbps speeds and beyond. These recent trials illustrate Sprint’s ability to support high-speed data and significantly increase the traffic-carrying capacity of optical channels with no change to the underlying infrastructure – and that is a significant coup for any operator in this highly competitive market.”

About Network VisionSprint’s Network Vision strategy consolidates multiple network technologies into one new, seamless network with the goal of increasing efficiency and enhancing network coverage, call quality and data speeds for customers across the United States. Network Vision also delivers enhanced scalability and performance for Sprint’s already robust wireline network, resulting in new capabilities for business customers.

About Sprint Business SolutionsSprint is a global provider of secure and reliable wireline and wireless communication services. With a best-in-class all-IP network as the foundation, Sprint helps enterprises unleash the full potential of business critical applications through a single account team that understands converged, cloud and mobility solutions, delivering an unrivalled customer experience.

For more information on Sprint MPLS and converged solutions, visit www.sprint.com/convergence or contact your Sprint account team. To join in the latest discussions and learn more about business solutions available through wireline convergence, visit the Seamless Enterprise at http://convergence.sprint.com/blog/.

About SprintSprint offers a comprehensive range of wireless and wireline communications services bringing the freedom of mobility to consumers, businesses and government users. Sprint served more than 53 million customers at the end of the second quarter of 2013 and is widely recognized for developing, engineering and deploying innovative technologies, including the first wireless 4G service from a national carrier in the United States; offering industry-leading mobile data services, leading prepaid brands including Virgin Mobile USA, Boost Mobile, and Assurance Wireless; instant national and international push-to-talk capabilities; and a global Tier 1 Internet backbone. The American Customer Satisfaction Index rated Sprint as the most improved company in customer satisfaction, across all 47 industries, during the last five years. Newsweek ranked Sprint No. 3 in both its 2011 and 2012 Green Rankings, listing it as one of the nation’s greenest companies, the highest of any telecommunications company. You can learn more and visit Sprint at www.sprint.com or www.facebook.com/sprint and www.twitter.com/sprint.

About Ciena
Ciena 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 OPⁿ, its approach for building open 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 Investors
Forward-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-Q, which Ciena filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on June 12, 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.