Arkansas-based Ritter Communications is deploying Ciena's (Nasdaq: CIEN) 5160 Service Aggregation Switch as a way to keep up with demands for 10 Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) wholesale and business services.
Already using Ciena in other parts of its network, the new platform is being used to satisfy the demand for 10GbE, particularly from business customers, and provide its growing list of Tier 1 wireless operator customers with fiber to the tower (FTTT) services.
Ritter said this platform will reduce the aggregation cost per 10GbE by 50 percent for the Ethernet and wireless backhaul services it delivers across the markets it serves in both Arkansas and Tennessee.
With support for 24 ports in a single rack unit, the telco can also reduce the amount of equipment it needs to install to support its service suite. The platform also supports other features, including wire-speed L2 switching with 240 Gbps fabric and MPLS operations administration and maintenance (OAM) service activation testing at line rate.
In addition, Ritter will deploy Ciena's new 5142 SAS, a 1RU platform it can use to provide 1 GbE to 10 GbE aggregation.
These deployments come at a time when Ritter has set a path of expansion via its own organic methods and the acquisition of western Tennessee's Millington Telephone Company and Millington Cable TV last September.
As part of that acquisition, the service provider, which also operates as a CLEC in Jonesboro, Ark., is implementing a similar strategy in the markets it entered through its Millington purchase.
As part of its broader goal to become a facilities-based CLEC, the service provider has also completed what it said was a "major fiber overbuild serving the main business and industry corridors in Jonesboro."
For more:
- see the release
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