Fibertech Networks, a competitive service provider, has introduced a new 100 Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) service for its growing business and carrier customers.
Serving as the foundation for this offering is Ciena's (Nasdaq: CIEN) 6500 Packet-Optical Platform and Service Delivery switches.
It is also leveraging the vendor's One Control Unified Management solution for unified management, visualization and control of the network, and the 3930 and 3916 Service Delivery Switches, which it says will enable it to scale its packet-based services.
The service provider said the the need to deploy 100 GbE metro services was a response to the growing bandwidth needs of its customers.
In addition to supporting media servers, cloud services are driving new bandwidth requirements.
For Fibertech, the move to bring 100G into its metro network was driven by a customer request for the higher speed service.
"The opportunity came with when we're complementing Ciena's 4200 DWDM platform, which we used prior to the 6500 and testing the 100 Gig and having these proposals out there it came together at the opportune time," said Tom Perrone, Director of Engineering and Network Planning for Fibertech, in an interview with FierceTelecom. "We both had decided on that platform and had obtained some awards for 100 Gig."
Perrone added that bringing DWDM into the metro network has benefits both for itself and for its customers.
"Folks were once looking at 1 Gig networks, 10 Gig, and now dedicated DWDM platforms in the metro where you initially saw a lot of plays with DWDM for long-haul networks to maximize fiber usage," he said. "Now it's not only maximizing fiber usage in the metro, but it provides a customer with instantaneous scalability without waiting for the fiber to be spliced."
Introducing this new service capability comes at a time when Fibertech has been expanding its network presence in a number of markets, including Cincinnati, Indianapolis and most recently Connecticut, where it added over 850 miles of fiber to its existing network.
Expanding its product portfolio to include higher speeds will enable Fibertech to more effectively compete with a host of incumbent telcos such as Cincinnati Bell (NYSE: CBB) in Cincinnati and Lightower in the Northeast.
For more:
- see the release
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Updated article on Sept. 18 with quotes from Tom Perrone, Director of Engineering and Network Planning for Fibertech.