Hermes Europe Railtel Awards Exclusive DWDM Contract to CIENA; MultiWave
Sentry-TM 4000 Will Be Deployed
BusinessWire, Tuesday, April 28, 1998 at 19:55
LINTHICUM, Md.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 29, 1998--Hermes Europe
Railtel (HER) today announced that it has signed a one year exclusive
contract with CIENA Corporation (NASDAQ:CIEN) to supply the MultiWave
Sentry(tm) 4000 dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) system
in its network. HER will be the first pan-European carrier to deploy
CIENA's 40-channel DWDM system. Deployment of the MultiWave Sentry
4000 will begin immediately throughout the HER network spanning six
countries.
The Hermes Europe Railtel network is Europe's largest carrier's
carrier network, reselling bandwidth to other service providers.
Deployed along railway-rights-of way, this 100% fiber optic network
currently has a total of almost 3,000 network kilometers in service.
Future plans call for the network to extend to more than 33 major
cities in 16 countries.
"Our success to date dictated a need to increase our capacity,"
said Jan Loeber, managing director, HER. "The 40-channel system
enables us to add enormous capacity and meet future bandwidth demand
required by the rapid proliferation of global telecommunications
providers. It effectively increases the capacity of one fiber pair 40
times, from 2.5 gigabits per second to 100 gigabits per second."
Loeber said CIENA was selected because of its proven capabilities
in high capacity systems and the fact that it was able to deliver
immediately. "The technology will be in place and operational before
the end of the year," he said. "The new optical platform will make
HER's network increasingly cost effective and, as a result, more
competitive. The new technology will enable us to differentiate our
network through service, reliability and cost."
"Hermes Europe Railtel is building the infrastructure necessary
to remain the premier carrier's carrier in Europe. Its selection of
the scaleable MultiWave Sentry 4000 system indicates that additional
capacity is needed in European networks today," said Patrick Nettles,
CIENA's president and chief executive officer. "Going forward, we
expect to see more European DWDM deployments as increased competition
drives service providers to make bandwidth more readily accessible to
businesses and residential customers."
"A growing percentage of the traffic on HER's network will be ATM
or IP-based," said Gary Smith, CIENA's vice president of international
sales. "CIENA's open architecture and DirectConnect feature give HER a
cost effective broadband data solution."
DirectConnect, an element within CIENA's MultiWave(R)
Technologies suite, enables ATM switches and IP routers to natively
access, or "-directly connect-" to the optical network, or transport
layer, obviating the need for the SONET/SDH multiplexer in
data-centric applications.
"With major data networking equipment vendors ready to deliver
2.5 Gb/s interfaces on ATM switches and IP routers this year, all the
necessary traffic multiplexing should be done logically at the ATM or
IP layer of the network," continued CIENA's Smith. "By adopting the
more efficient, streamlined approach to data service deployment
afforded by CIENA's direct connect ability, HER has the potential to
realize a significant cost advantage over providers who choose to
deploy a TDM-multiplexed approach for data."
MultiWave Technologies are embedded system features that extend
across all of CIENA's products. Technologies such as SmartSpan and
WaveLock enhance system performance and reliability while containing
optical network characteristics within the system, thereby greatly
simplifying network operations, administration, management and
provisioning (OAM&P). SmartSpan provides automated span management by
monitoring and dynamically adjusting parameters in each MultiWave
component. WaveLock performs continuous frequency locking resulting in
extremely high stability in all conditions, a critical capability as
channel density increases.
Deployment of the MultiWave Sentry 4000 system in Europe marks
CIENA's first major installation of the new 40-channel product ouside
of the United States. As reported earlier this week, CIENA will be
supporting HER from its new Euro Support Center located near London's
Heathrow International Airport.
Hermes Europe Railtel's pan-European fiber-optic
telecommunications network provides trans-border transport services
exclusively to telecommunications service companies, including
established and emerging carriers. The company is a joint-venture
between Global TeleSystems Group (NASDAQ & EASDAQ: GTSG), an
independent US-based developer of telecommunications service companies
in Europe and Asia, and two European railway companies.
NOTE TO INVESTORS
Forward-looking statements in this release, including statements
regarding the expectation of immediate installation of CIENA's
equipment in the Hermes Europe Railtel network, as well as the
expectation of more European DWDM deployments as increased competition
drives service providers to make bandwidth more readily accessible to
businesses and residential customers, are based on information
available to the Company as of the date hereof. The Company's actual
results could differ materially from those stated or implied by such
forward-looking statements, due to risks and uncertainties associated
with the Company's dependence on its major customers and their
spending patterns, including specifically the impact on the Company's
near term operating results of WorldCom's recently announced change in
purchasing practices, the challenge of transitioning to the
manufacture of multiple product lines in fiscal 1998, and the overall
management of its expansion. The forward-looking statements should be
considered in the context of these and other risk factors disclosed in
the Company's Form 10-Q, filed with the Securities and Exchange
Commission on February 19, 1998.
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