AAPT Selects Ciena for Nationwide Business Ethernet Services Build

LINTHICUM, Md. -- (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Ciena^® Corporation (NASDAQ: CIEN), the network specialist, today announced it has been selected by AAPT, one of Australia’s three largest telecommunications carriers, to upgrade its nationwide network with next-generation Carrier Ethernet service delivery capabilities. The upgrade will position AAPT for greater success in anticipation of Australia’s National Broadband Network (NBN). To meet growing demand from top businesses across Australia for high-quality Ethernet business services, AAPT’s new infrastructure will be scalable to terabit-level capacities, providing reliable Ethernet private line and wide area LAN services to retail service providers. This will allow providers to deliver high-bandwidth, low-latency applications such as streaming video, cloud networking, business-to-business commerce, wireless backhaul and wholesale connectivity.

Key Facts:

• With construction of Australia’s NBN underway, AAPT’s upgraded network will address both pent-up demand for ultrafast broadband services and competitively position AAPT as a market leader in Ethernet business service delivery when the NBN becomes generally available.
• The network will be built on Ciena’s 5410 and 5150 Service Aggregation Switches, augmenting AAPT’s existing IP/MPLS core network. The new carrier Ethernet network will deliver transport-class Ethernet services that far exceed the quality-of-service associated with traditional Ethernet while improving the service flexibility and speed to market delivered via traditional TDM networks.
• With Ciena’s Carrier Ethernet Service Delivery (CESD) solutions, AAPT’s network will boast one of the market’s most scalable and flexible terabit-scale Layer 2 infrastructures. Capable of delivering services via connection-oriented Ethernet protocols, the network will be able to meet end-customers’ strict service level agreements.
• With bandwidth capacity to offer protected end-to-end 10 Gb/s Ethernet services, AAPT can address the high-bandwidth transport requirements across its data centers as well as Point-of-Interconnect backhaul traffic for Australia’s NBN, which will become increasingly important as the NBN gets rolled out and bandwidth from retail service providers increases.
• As part of the Ciena Specialist Services portfolio, AAPT will also utilize Ciena’s Consult and Design Services Suite to ensure the network is deployed and commissioned accurately and on time. Ciena’s team of specialists will provide AAPT with local technical resources to implement back-office integration of Ciena’s OneControl ESM to AAPT’s OSS and provide technical and project leadership to ensure that solutions are designed and delivered to meet AAPT’s key technical and business requirements.

Executive Quotes:

• “AAPT is focused on meeting our customer demands and expectations for the highest-quality Ethernet services in the Australian market. With this network build, we’re able to meet those goals and even offer customers strict Service Level Agreements, while maintaining low network operations costs. With a network scalable to the terabit-level, we can virtually meet any future demand for high-performance applications that may be enabled in the era of NBN.”
  - David Yuile, CEO, AAPT

• “The Australian market is on the verge of explosive growth, in part due to the NBN, and we believe AAPT is now even better positioned to leverage this growth with this new network infrastructure. Next-generation Carrier Ethernet technology is a key asset to service providers as they push the limits of current networks and face the prospect of a level playing field with the rollout of the NBN. The race to modernization has truly begun.”
  - Anthony McLachlan, Vice President and General Manager, Asia Pacific, Ciena

Technology Leadership and Product Background:

• Ciena's CESD portfolio combines intelligent devices and software to create low-touch, high-velocity Carrier Ethernet access and metro networks, creating a common, consistent way to deliver a full range of Ethernet services that significantly accelerates and automates service creation and activation.
• Ciena’s 5150 and 5410 platforms are optimized for cost-effective, scalable and resilient packet services that enable service providers to keep pace with the ever-growing demand for bandwidth capacity.
• Ciena’s CESD portfolio is powered by a common operating system, which maintains a common interface across platforms, allowing significant automation of service provisioning and turn-up tasks that dramatically reduce time-to-market and ongoing operating costs.

Supporting Resources and Multimedia:

• Product Overview: Carrier Ethernet Service Delivery Portfolio
• Data Sheet: 5410 Service Aggregation Switch
• Data Sheet: 5150 Service Aggregation Switch
• Whitepaper: Packet Transport Evolution
• Whitepaper: Carrier Ethernet: Taking Bandwidth to the Edge

About AAPT

AAPT is one of Australia's leading telecommunications companies, offering local and long distance voice, mobile, data and Internet services for business, government and wholesale customers, via its extensive national fiber network. AAPT is 100% owned by Telecom New Zealand, New Zealand's largest listed company and one of the top 20 largest listed companies on the Australian Stock Exchange. AAPT is one of only three Australian telecommunications providers to own and operate a national voice and data network.

With one of Australia’s most extensive and highest-quality IP networks, AAPT’s dedicated focus is on creating a position for customers to experience a telecommunications partnership unmatched by others. For more information, visit www.aapt.com.au.

About Ciena

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 website. For more information, visit 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-K, which Ciena filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on September 8, 2011. 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.