Mobily and Ciena Team to Deploy Middle East's First 100G Network in Riyadh

(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Ciena® Corporation, the network specialist, and Mobily, the region's fastest growing mobile operator, today announced the activation of the first commercial 100 Gigabit per second network in the Middle East. This regional first, deployed within the Riyadh metropolitan area, is an extension of Mobily's highly resilient, adaptable and scalable nationwide network.

Mobily, which owns more than 40 percent of Saudi Arabia's mobile market, recently announced its selection of optical transport and switching platforms, Carrier Ethernet solutions, as then as management and maintenance services from Ciena - all aimed at supporting high-bandwidth services. The 100G coherent service delivered on Ciena's ActivFlex 6500 Packet-Optical Platform - the industry's first commercially available system equipped with coherent 100G optics - is key to that architecture. Mobily's new 100G capabilities give the operator the ability to quickly and easily add network capacity in the crucial metropolitan area of Riyadh.

"This 100G deployment demonstrates our ongoing focus on research, aimed at bringing leading edge research offerings to our clients," said Abdul Aziz Al Tamami, chief operations officer at Mobily. "The demand for bandwidth coming from Saudi businesses is growing steadily, and applications like video, teleconferencing and cloud computing are fuelling a significant portion of this growth. By embracing Ciena's 100G coherent innovation, we are capable of fulfilling the needs of even the most demanding of our clients, during future-proofing our network for the years to come."

Total throughput of 8

Ciena's 100G coherent innovation will allow for a total throughput of 8.8 Terabits of data per second on Mobily's network, carried over 88 optical channels on a single strand of optical fiber.

"Our close work with Mobily represents a clear validation of the leading-edge offerings across our product portfolio, from Carrier Ethernet to intelligent optical switching to 100G coherent transmission. We are especially pleased to join Mobily in deploying the first 100G network in the Middle East, reinforcing our reputation as the leader in live field deployments of coherent optical systems," said François Locoh-Donou, Ciena's vice president and general manager for EMEA.

The pioneer in coherent innovation for optical transmission, Ciena is as well the commercial leader in this market with more than 6,000 coherent 40G/100G line interfaces shipped to more than 70 clients across the globe. Ciena's ActivFlex 6500 platform equipped with coherent 100G optics has been operating in live networks since December 2009 and provides a simple upgrade path from existing 10G and 40G networks - increasing the amount of bandwidth existing networks can carry by as much as tenfold - with minimal network changes and investment to cost-effectively maximize traffic transport.

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 December 22, 2010. Forward-looking statements include statements regarding Ciena's expectations, beliefs, intentions or strategies regarding the future and can be identified by forward-looking words just 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 if not.