ASHBURN, Va. -- In an unprecedented joint industry effort, MCI, Inc. (MCIA.PK), CIENA(R) Corporation (Nasdaq: CIEN - News) and Mintera Corporation today announced they have achieved the world's fastest Ultra Long-Haul (ULH) connection at 40 Gigabits Per Second (Gbps) -- four times faster than the highest-speed ULH routes deployed today. Utilizing an MCI long-haul network route spanning more than 1200 km, the technology trial highlights how the MCI network can seamlessly activate 40 Gbps ULH wavelengths to facilitate the roll-out of next-generation IP-based services over its existing 10 Gbps backbone.

The technology trial took place over MCI's ULH Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing (DWDM) optical network route between Sacramento, CA and Salt Lake City, UT. This network route was selected because it uses the company's existing fiber plant, and includes a mix of fiber -- TrueWave Classic, Dispersion Shifted Fiber (DSF), Long Span Fiber (LS) and Single Mode Fiber (SMF), illustrating the real-world scalability of the MCI network. Mintera's production quality MI 40000 40 Gbps DWDM fiber optic transport terminals interoperated directly on CIENA's CoreStream(TM) Agility optical transport system, which provides an automated ULH backbone for the MCI network. MCI demonstrated true "plug and play" capability of 40 Gbps transmission with the ULH system. The 40 Gbps wavelength was commissioned in less than an hour, and then performed error-free on the same optical fibers already carrying 10 Gbps wavelengths throughout the trial.

"MCI continues to build on its legacy of innovation with this important industry achievement," said Jack Wimmer MCI vice president of Network Architecture and Advanced Technology. "Only a few weeks ago, MCI became the first network carrier to demonstrate live 40 Gbps IP networking between our locations in San Francisco and San Jose. Today, we are the first to extend the reach of 40 Gbps wavelengths over our Ultra Long-Haul backbone network." In February, MCI became the first network provider to deploy an Ultra Long-Haul network route in the United States.

Once implemented, MCI's Ultra Long-Haul 40 Gbps solution will allow customers to obtain near real-time bandwidth upgrades and accelerated installation schedules to facilitate the adoption of next-generation IP services.

"This joint technology trial confirms the viability of 40 Gbps technology over our Ultra Long-Haul network and sets the stage for MCI customers to easily migrate to bandwidth-intensive business applications like Web Services, multimedia content distribution, grid computing, and storage networking," said Wimmer.

MCI Inc.

Ciena Corp.

Mintera Corp.