Korean ISP Gears Up for Gigabit

Korea Telecom contracts with Ciena Corp. for nation-wide multi-wavelength optical network infrastructure.

by dc.internet.com Staff
[September 25, 2000]

In what it claims to be the largest Asian deployment of intelligent optical transport systems for metropolitan area networking, Ciena Corp. (NASDAQ:CIEN) is completing a deal with Korea Telecom. Ciena's MultiWave Metro will be used primarily to support Korea's rapid growth in Internet and data network traffic.

Korea Telecom will use Ciena's Metro systems across seven metropolitan fiber rings throughout Korea, including the capital city of Seoul. Ciena's Metro gear will allow Korea Telecom to deliver to customers a mix of current services such as SONET and new services such as gigabit Ethernet by providing the required intelligent network capacity, performance monitoring and optical service protection.

"This is a significant deployment in the metropolitan optical networking space," said Matt Walker, regional director, Asia-Pacific, at telecommunications market research firm RHK. "We expect to see Asia's metro optical networking market continue to develop in the coming years. Korea Telecom's deployment expands Ciena's customer base with major Asian service providers, which positions Ciena well for future growth in Asia."

Korea Telecom chose Ciena after extensive trials with five vendors.

"As the first optical supplier to transport gigabit Ethernet traffic over a live multi-wavelength carrier network, we now are leveraging that technology leadership in metropolitan area networking as we expand into new markets such as Korea," said Patrick Nettles, president and chief executive officer of the Linthicum, Md.-based Ciena.

Ciena's optical networking systems form the core for the new era of networks and services worldwide. The company's LightWorks architecture allows next-generation optical services and changes the economics of service-provider networks by simplifying the network and reducing the cost to operate it.

—End