Atlantech Picks MRV

CHATSWORTH, Calif. -- MRV COMMUNICATIONS, INC. (Nasdaq: MRVC), a leading provider of products and services for out-of-band networking, WDM and optical transport, metro Ethernet, fiber optic components, 10GE and other service aware networking products, today announced Maryland-based regional carrier Atlantech Online Inc. has chosen the LambdaDriver® wave-division multiplexing (WDM) system as the basis for its 300-kilometer backbone network, which delivers services to customers in the Washington D.C. area.

Atlantech’s customer base includes federal agencies and small and large enterprise customers. The company offers transport services, leased wavelengths, point-to-point circuits, MPLS, datacenter collocation and, as of the beginning of 2006, voice services. The service provider has been in business since 1995, growing its business using standard time division multiplexing (TDM) and then leased lit fiber services. Atlantech began leasing dark fiber in 2006 and has grown to operate its own fiber network as the needs of its customers have evolved. Atlantech sought out a WDM system to fully leverage its fiber infrastructure as its service offerings expanded to include voice traffic and its growing customer base demanded more bandwidth.

Atlantech’s 300-km Gigabit Ethernet backbone ring connects its three points of presence in Arlington and Ashburn, VA, and Silver Spring, MD, which allows the company to offers its services throughout metropolitan Washington D.C. Atlantech chose the MRV equipment after a competitive review because of its cost effectiveness and because of features like add-drop multiplexing that allows Atlantech to launch point-to-point services to its customers. Additionally, the company is considering offering storage-networking services across the backbone using the LambdaDriver’s Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) capabilities. MRV worked with its partner Solunet Inc. to deliver the WDM network.

“Atlantech has grown in the face of stiff competition through its ability to be competitive, and the cost-effectiveness of the LambdaDriver enhances that ability both in services we offer today, but also in giving us the flexibility to offer services, like storage networking, that we thought were out of our reach,” said Eric Van Tol, operations manager for Atlantech Online, Inc. “We’ve maintained profitability since day one by being able to offer advanced services through our upgradeable network, and we are optimistic that with the MRV gear in place, we will continue to do so.”

MRV Communications Inc. (Nasdaq: MRVC)