The South East Asia - Middle East - Western Europe 4 (SEA-ME-WE 4) co-owners have selected Alcatel-Lucent (Euronext Paris and NYSE: ALU) and Ciena Corporation (NASDAQ: CIEN) for their network expansion project.
Alcatel-Lucent was selected for an upgrade to 40G (Gigabit per second) transmission of all the submarine segments. Ciena was selected to supply optical switching equipment for all 16 cable landing sites, as well as for 100G transport for an upgrade of the terrestrial link connecting Alexandria to Suez in Egypt.
The deployment will commence in the first quarter of 2011, and will provide substantial capacity increase to the existing cable system (ultimate capacity of 2.4 Terabit per second per fibre pair), which supports the delivery of high-speed Internet and broadband services along the approximately 20 000km route connecting Europe to the Middle East and South East Asia.
Alcatel-Lucent will deploy its 1620 Light Manager upgraded to 40G with coherent technology, and also upgrade part of the already installed 1678 Metro Core Connect on the terrestrial SDH side. Ciena will deploy its multi-terabit ActivFlex 5430 Reconfigurable Switching System at cable landing stations and ActivFlex 6500 Packet-Optical Platform, equipped with coherent 100G optics, for the upgrade to 100G of the terrestrial link in Egypt and part of the terrestrial SDH.
More about Alcatel-Lucent, Ciena solutions
Alcatel-Lucent will upgrade its 1620 Light Manager with next-generation coherent technology to offer 40G speeds. Signal processing associated with coherent technology allows operators to deal with transmission impairments in a cost-effective and automated manner, and allows performance tuning through the life of the system. This flexibility in implementing different modulation formats enables Alcatel-Lucent to offer service providers the best technology option for new deployments and for existing networks.
Ciena will provide its ActivFlex 5430 with multi-terabit switching scalability and network resiliency Ciena will also provide its ActivFlex 6500 with coherent 100G optics, electronic dispersion compensation, and directionless and colourless ROADM functionality - which has been operating in live networks since December 2009.
Alcatel-Lucent's submarine networks
Leveraging over 150 years of experience in the submarine business, Alcatel-Lucent leads the industry in terms of capacity and installed base, with over 500 000km of submarine networks. From network upgrades to new deployments, from regional to transcontinental networks, Alcatel-Lucent provides every part of a global transmission network, all tailored to its customers' needs. A comprehensive service portfolio completes its turnkey offering for the submarine business, including dry and wet operations and maintenance.
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Alcatel-Lucent
Alcatel-Lucent (Euronext Paris and NYSE: ALU) is the trusted transformation partner of service providers, enterprises, strategic industries such as defence, energy, healthcare, transportation, and governments worldwide, providing solutions to deliver voice, data and video communication services to end-users. A leader in fixed, mobile and converged broadband networking, IP and optics technologies, applications and services, Alcatel-Lucent leverages the unrivalled technical and scientific expertise of Bell Labs, one of the largest innovation powerhouses in the communications industry. With operations in more than 130 countries and the most experienced global services organisation in the industry, Alcatel-Lucent is a local partner with a global reach. Alcatel-Lucent achieved revenues of Euro 15.2 billion in 2009 and is incorporated in France, with executive offices located in Paris. For more information, visit Alcatel-Lucent on the Internet: http://www.alcatel-lucent.com, read the latest posts on the Alcatel-Lucent blog http://www.alcatel-lucent.com/blog and follow us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/Alcatel_Lucent.
Ciena
Ciena has extensive experience delivering advanced optical switching and ultra long-haul transmission platforms to support subsea networks. Ciena's solutions revive cable operators' submarine assets with more bandwidth, higher-availability services and differentiated customer-focused offerings. Our 40G/100G transport technology facilitates a higher revenue stream from existing cables and breathes new life into cables that are nearing the end of their economic life cycle. And, our state-of-the-art switching technology improves service availability with advanced protection and restoration technology to increase the value of services and lower maintenance costs. 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. With focused innovation, Ciena brings together the reliability and capacity of optical networking with the flexibility and economics of Ethernet, unified by a software suite that delivers the industry's leading network automation. We routinely post recent news, financial results and other important announcements and information about Ciena on our Web site. For more information, visit http://www.ciena.com.
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 September 8, 2010. 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.
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