CENX, one of the early pioneers in the still-nascent Ethernet exchange market segment, announced Monday during the Carrier Ethernet World Congress in Barcelona that Ericsson (Nasdaq: ERIC) is the latest company to make an investment in the service provider.
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Chen (Image source: CENX) |
Ericsson joined Verizon Investments LLC, a subsidiary of Verizon Communications (NYSE: VZ), Mesirow Financial Private Equity, DCM, Highland Capital Partners, and Wasatch as the latest investment round.
Besides making an investment in the company, Ericsson is working on various opportunities in the United States with CENX, particularly for 4G/LTE wireless backhaul.
Nan Chen, co-founder and president of CENX said in an interview with FierceTelecom that its enhanced partnership with Ericsson will enhance its ability to serve a broader international market via the Swedish vendor's broad channels and service provider relationships.
"The investment enables to really rapidly be able to expand globally," he said. "That obviously gives us a great channel with presence in 80 countries so with our technology and their global presence we're really adding value to both our customers."
With wireless operators continually migrating to fiber-based Ethernet circuits for wireless backhaul, the CENX Carrier Ethernet Interconnect Systems & Services suite will come in handy for Ericsson's client's who are continually looking for the best options.
CENX can appeal to service providers on two levels: providing physical interconnections between carriers at their Physical Exchanges, and offering the Interconnect System software where carriers interconnect systems and processes.
And while the physical connections CENX makes is important, Chen said the real secret sauce lies in the software component.
"The good news is that when we do that software we can manage exchanges that are owned by us or exchanges owned by others, which made us even more valuable from the perspective of being able to manage different exchanges," Chen said. "When I say exchange it could be a mobile backhaul exchange."
Neither CENX nor its investor partners revealed the amount of the latest financing round.
This is the second big member of the telecom food chain to show support for CENX. In June, the Ethernet exchange provider got a $9.5 million investment led by Verizon and Mesirow Financial.
For more:
- see the release
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