Cegetel selects Ciena's next-gen core systems to increase performance for broadband appls.

Ciena Corporation (Nasdaq:CIEN) has announced that Cegetel has selected Ciena's next-generation optical transport systems to improve the performance and reliability of the French operator's national long-haul network and to facilitate new revenue opportunities via more efficient broadband service delivery.

Cegetel, France's leading alternative telecommunications carrier, will deploy Ciena's CoreStream Agility for increased capacity and flexibility in its core network to support the adoption of high-capacity services at the network edge. CoreStream mitigates bandwidth obstacles for Cegetel to ease the deployment of high-value services as Cegetel's consumer, enterprise, operator and ISP customers place increasing demands on the network with broadband applications.

"Following a competitive tender process for core infrastructure, we chose to continue our successful relationship with Ciena, whose historical leadership in the fiber optic network market ensures that we generate greater value from our network. The expertise of a partner like Ciena is critical to our success as we continuously evolve to meet customer demand for next-generation services," said Francis Costamania, general manager, Cegetel Network. "In particular, the abundance of broadband and multimedia applications Cegetel offers today means that our core fiber optic network plays a central role in the efficient delivery of services such as DSL, UMTS, voice over IP, Gigabit Ethernet and online storage. Ciena's CoreStream Agility assures us of that."

Building on a working relationship of more than seven years between the two companies, the contract was awarded after an extensive consultation and selection process involving vendors from Europe and Asia in addition to the United States. CoreStream Agility provides Cegetel greater levels of bandwidth and reliability across its core network via WDM (wavelength division multiplexing) and the incorporation of innovative technologies such as tunable lasers, intelligent add and drop systems, and next-generation transponders to offer the most cost-effective, flexible and reliable solution for delivering advanced services.

"This contract with Cegetel reflects our ongoing commitment to the European market and our ability to solve critical network challenges for customers across the region with innovative technologies. It also demonstrates that in addition to Ciena's specialist expertise in other high-growth areas --including broadband access and carrier-class Ethernet--we maintain our strong leadership position and commitment to core networking," said Eric Sele, Ciena's managing director for Southern Europe, Middle East and Africa. "We are dedicated to enabling high-value applications while optimizing network performance and economics to help customers like Cegetel deliver a wider range of services through their networks."