Ciena's fortunes received a boost when Comcast picked its carrier Ethernet service delivery platforms for its Metro Ethernet-based commercial services.
In May, Comcast, through its Comcast Business Services division, announced it had deployed Metro Ethernet [1] services in more than 20 markets across the nation with additional launches to follow.
Comcast's Metro Ethernet services are geared towards companies with 20 to 500 employees, which gives it a significant entry into the medium-sized commercial services sector.
The services, which include Ethernet Private Line, Ethernet Virtual Private Line, Ethernet Network and Ethernet Dedicated Internet Access, are provisioned over Comcast's IP network, which features more than 147,000 miles of fiber-optic cable.
With its Metro Ethernet offerings, Comcast can deliver bandwidth from 1 Mbps up to 10 Gbps that can be remotely scaled in increments of 1 Mbps, 10 Mbps, 100 Mbps or 1 Gbps and is offered with three different classes of service.
"As a part of our MEF-certified, multi-vendor infrastructure for delivering Metro Ethernet services, Ciena provides flexible and reliable Ethernet access platforms so we can deploy quickly in a wide range of environments, whether a wiring closet in an office building, an outside wall of a school or at a cell site," said Kevin O'Toole, senior vice president of product management and strategy, Comcast Business Services. "In addition, the ability to remotely increase a customer's bandwidth via software without rolling a truck or manually touching the box simplifies our operations and improves the customer experience."
Comcast is using Ciena's gear for customer premise equipment for business services as well as for wireless backhaul. Specifically, Comcast is deploying Ciena's LE-311v, which is part of a family of service delivery and aggregation platforms that address a wide range of application and service requirements.
"Metro Ethernet has always been viewed as an optimal solution for mid-sized organizations struggling for more scalable bandwidth options to support their business, but the challenge was literally availability – they couldn't get it. With its nationwide fiber optic network and extensive fiber reach within its markets, Comcast's Metro Ethernet services will help eliminate that availability issue while offering a completely separate option for network and service diversity," said Mike Aquino, senior vice president, global field organization at Ciena. "Used for both business services and wireless backhaul, this deployment speaks directly to our Carrier Ethernet platforms forming a comprehensive portfolio for Ethernet service delivery in terms of flexible deployment options, service offerings, operational efficiency and price-for-performance."
Earlier this month, Ciena reported second-quarter losses that exceeded some analysts' expectations, as well as lower third-quarter projections.
In addition to Comcast, Ciena's customer roster included AT&T and Verizon.
