CenturyLink Inc. (NYSE: CTL) did, indeed, turn out to be the North American customer Infinera Corp. (Nasdaq: INFN) was boasting about, but the company still has a shot at Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ) and might nudge out Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE: ALU) to do it, according to one analyst.

It's no secret Verizon is at least intrigued, considering Stuart Elby, Verizon's vice president of network architecture, spoke at the launch of Infinera's DTN-X. The catch is that Verizon already has a long-haul WDM supplier in Ciena Corp. (NYSE: CIEN).

Eventually, Verizon will need to pick a second source for 100Gbit/s optical transport, and it's likely to come down to AlcaLu and Infinera, writes analyst George Notter of Jefferies & Company Inc.

"Alcatel-Lucent -- given their history with Verizon -- should have the clear inside track. Nonetheless, Alcatel-Lucent’s balance sheet -- combined with Infinera’s technology -- could give [Infinera] an advantage," he writes.

Notter believes Infinera's win with CenturyLink involves interconnecting the data centers acquired with Savvis. The DTN-X has picked up a few more customers as well, with the total now at 20, as Infinera told analysts Thursday.

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— Craig Matsumoto, Managing Editor, Light Reading