Arkansas-based service provider future-proofs metro network to support customers’ insatiable demand for Ethernet business services and backhaul requirements for Tier 1 mobile operators

Ciena® Corporation (NASDAQ: CIEN), the network specialist, today announced that Ritter Communications, an Arkansas-based communications provider, will deploy Ciena’s new packet networking solutions to support growing customer demand for 10 Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) wholesale transport and Internet services as well as mobile backhaul requirements for Tier 1 mobile operators. With Ciena’s 5160 Service Aggregation Switch (SAS) Ritter will be able to deliver premium Ethernet and wireless backhaul services across Arkansas and Tennessee at a 50 percent reduction in aggregation cost per 10GbE port compared to similar solutions available on the market today.

Key Facts:

  • Ritter is a fifth-generation family business      founded in 1886. Today, through a modern, intelligent infrastructure,      Ritter owns and operates three rural local exchange carriers (RLECs) in northern      Arkansas and western Tennessee; a fiber based competitive local exchange      carrier (CLEC) in Jonesboro, Arkansas and a wholesale services network      throughout Arkansas and western Tennessee.
  • Ritter      will deploy Ciena’s 5160 SAS, which features industry-leading      10GbE density with 24 ports in a      compact, single rack unit (1RU) form factor, which      significantly reduces the amount of equipment Ritter would otherwise have      to install and manage. The 5160 also supports a wide range of robust and      field-proven packet features, including wire-speed L2 switching with 240      Gigabit per second (Gbps) fabric and MPLS OAM support service activation      testing at line rate, giving Ritter the ability to offer 10GbE service delivery      and aggregation and the flexibility to meet customers varied business service      and backhaul requirements.
  • Ritter will also deploy Ciena’s      new 5142 SAS, a flexible, compact edge platform that provides efficient 1GbE to      10GbE aggregation density in a 1RU, fixed chassis configuration. The new 5160 and 5142 also      provide Ritter with 10GbE service activation testing, extended temperature      range support, full synchronization support, and greatly reduced power and      space footprint – all critical aspects of improving customer satisfaction      and overall deployment lifecycle costs.
  • Ritter will also leverage      Ciena’s OneControl      Unified Management System to improve operational      efficiency and seamlessly manage its entire portfolio of Ciena solutions –      from edge to core – to quickly address new demand for Ethernet services      and connectivity and provide Service Level Agreement (SLA) insights.

Executive Comments:

  • “The 5160 specifically allows us to expand our regional core to accommodate the demand for higher bandwidth and 10G customer interfaces. We’ve been experiencing significant growth from our Ethernet Business Services as well as our Wholesale Transport and Internet Services, and this technology is a key factor in enabling us to continue to service this demand. The small form factors of the 5160 and 5142 allow us to expand quickly where needed and address the network’s hot spots in a cost-effective manner. And since we can’t sacrifice on quality of service, the OAM feature set is critical to delivering on our service level agreements to our customers.”
    - Greg Sunderwood, vice president of engineering, Ritter Communications
  • “Ritter is highly attuned to its customers’ needs, and is making strategic investments in its network to ensure that it can meet the unrelenting demand for Ethernet services from both business and mobile operators. Our new 10GbE packet networking solutions are ideal for companies like Ritter that recognize the value of the network – and its underlying infrastructure –  in ensuring the success and longevity of their business and we are pleased that they continue to seek our partnership.”
    - Chad Whalen, vice president and general manager, North America field operations, Ciena

Technology Leadership:

  • Used      by more than 150 carriers, wireless service providers and cable operators      worldwide, Ciena’s packet solutions improve service agility by      concentrating complexities onto fewer platforms, better utilizes the right      network element and technology for the job, economically supports higher      densities and increases overall network capacity, and enables faster      transition from declining legacy services to growing packet services.
  • OPn is      Ciena’s approach for building open, programmable next-generation networks      that scale and automatically adapt to handle the changes created by      cloud/data center migration, mobile broadband and the growing demand for      high-bandwidth applications and services.

Supporting Resources:

About Ritter Communications:

Ritter Communications is a regional telecommunications provider serving 57 communities and over 40,000 customers in northeast and north central Arkansas and west Tennessee with a full suite of communications services.

Ritter invests heavily in the communities it serves by deploying proven, best in class infrastructure and technology while coupling it with a world class customer focused experience. Ritter’s investment in a state of the art network allows all customers, regardless of their location to enjoy advanced services typically found only in major metropolitan areas.

Headquartered today in Jonesboro, Arkansas, Ritter continues to expand its sphere of comprehensive services including high speed WAN, metro Ethernet, managed services, Internet access, cloud based applications and video. Additionally, Ritter has partnered to provide connectivity to national and regional broadband networks such as: Arkansas e-link, ARE-ON and Internet2 which provide a positive impact on the communities Ritter serves.

For more information, visit www.rittercommunications.com or facebook.com/rittercommunications.


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. Ciena leverages its deep expertise in packet and optical networking and distributed software automation to deliver solutions in alignment with OPn, its approach for building open next-generation networks. We enable a high-scale, programmable infrastructure that can be controlled and adapted by network-level applications, and provide open interfaces to coordinate computing, storage and network resources in a unified, virtualized environment. For updates on Ciena news, follow us on Twitter @Ciena or on LinkedIn http://www.linkedin.com/company/ciena. Investors are encouraged to review the Investors section of our website at www.ciena.com/investors, where we routinely post press releases, SEC filings, recent news, financial results, and other announcements. From time to time we exclusively post material information to this website along with other disclosure channels that we use.

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-Q, which Ciena filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on September 11, 2013. 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.