Verizon Picks Ciena for Atlantic Mesh

LONDON and LINTHICUM, Md. -- Ciena® Corporation (NASDAQ:CIEN), the network specialist, today announced that Verizon Business isdelivering its first highly-resilient mesh network based on CienaCoreDirector® Multiservice Optical Switches across its terrestrial andundersea cable network to offer unsurpassed reliability to multinationalbusiness and government customers. The intelligent trans-Atlantic networkfeatures the most advanced service protection technology available, enablingVerizon Business to maximise service availability and ensure delivery ofcustomers' mission-critical voice and data traffic between Europe and theU.S.

Unlike in legacy SONET/SDH networks, protection in an intelligentCoreDirector mesh network is shared across multiple "working" routes usingCiena's unique FastMesh(tm) restoration technology that can dynamicallyreroute services around failures using available bandwidth anywhere in thenetwork. In addition, CoreDirector supports multiple classes of service thatmap service levels to network resources by combining protection andrestoration with routing and signaling intelligence so services can bedelivered over the route with the appropriate level of protection and lowestcost. This combination of fully-automated restoration and resiliencyprovides Verizon Business with a flexible network foundation to customiseservices to the requirements of specific customers and drive incrementalrevenue opportunities.

Verizon Business, a unit of Verizon Communications (NYSE: VZ), is a leadingprovider of advanced communications and information technology (IT)solutions to large business and government customers worldwide. It owns andoperates one of the most expansive IP backbone networks in the world,spanning six continents and more than 446,000 route miles. The Atlanticnetwork is one of the largest and most route-diverse based on its six-waymesh design, which Verizon Business plans to expand in 2007 with a seventhtrans-Atlantic path and additional terrestrial nodes. The Atlantic meshnetwork went live last summer and is supporting revenue-generatingcustomers.

"Service availability is paramount to our customers and is therefore thefocus of our strategy to differentiate our network and services fromcompetitors," said Ihab Tarazi, vice president of Verizon Business' GlobalNetwork Planning. "The diversity of our mesh network combined withCoreDirector's ability to offer multiple levels of protection while fullyautomating network utilization and service availability via its intelligentoptical control plane helps us reduce operational costs while drivingincremental revenue."

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