Southern Cross Completes 100G Expansion Powered by Ciena

HAMILTON, Bermuda & HANOVER, Md.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–

As part of its latest capacity expansion Southern Cross Cable Network today announced the successful implementation ofCiena’s (CIEN) 100G transmission equipment across the entire Southern Cross network.

Southern Cross Sales and Marketing Director Ross Pfeffer says, “The implementation of 100G technology is a major milestone in the ongoing expansion and enhancement of our 30,000km submarine network in continued support of the development of high-speed broadband in Australia and New Zealand.

“The 100G transmission equipment increases total lit capacity across our two cables to 2.6Tbps. If deployed on all Southern Cross fibres, along with gridless optical networking, our potential capacity capability increases to 12Tbps, between Australia/New Zealand and the USA.

“Retail broadband data caps have expanded dramatically on the back of current international capacity prices in both Australia and New Zealand with demand for capacity continuing to grow at around 35 to 40 per cent annually,” Pfeffer stated. “Our deployment of this latest technology places Southern Cross in an even stronger position to stay well ahead of the demand growth resulting from Australia’s NBN (National Broadband Network) and New Zealand’s UFB (Ultra-fast Broadband) initiatives, and the growth associated with cloud services and new content. The long-standing Southern Cross policy of using the latest technology improvements to expand lit capacity and to lower marginal cost will ensure that Southern Cross remains in a position to cost-effectively support demand growth for many years.

“Southern Cross first introduced the Ciena 6500 Packet-Optical Platform in 2011, to future proof the network, support expanding demand and enable product enhancement. That decision has already paid dividends, enabling the transition of the network from 10G optics, to 40G in 2012, and now to 100G, while allowing the network capacity to be augmented without adding significant complexity.

“The Ciena platforms used by Southern Cross provide enhanced switching capability in support of our mesh-enabled submarine network architecture,” said Pfeffer. “This reduces the risk of natural and man-made network disruptions, even under multi-failure conditions, and provides the platform on which the new generation of Southern Cross products is being developed, such as the recent introduction of 40Gbps OTN services, and the current development of 40GbE and 100GbE services.

“With direct connectivity to Southern Cross capacity now available from key Internet data centres such as Equinix in Sydney, CoreSite in San Jose, California and the Westin Building in Seattle, Washington (as well as our nine traditional cable stations), it is easier than ever for our customers to access high-capacity connectivity.”

Ciena’s Vice President and General Manager, Asia Pacific, Anthony McLachlan, states: “Ciena’s 100G-based GeoMesh solutions enable leading service providers like Southern Cross to address global bandwidth needs, ensure network availability and quickly respond to changing traffic and service demands. Our WaveLogic Coherent Optical Processors are well suited to the demanding distances required for Trans-Pacific links and help to minimise the need to deploy expensive new submarine cables. In addition, our portfolio uniquely addresses these complicated undersea environments that require rapid disaster recovery, remote provisioning and intensive network monitoring capabilities, as well as extreme distances and the need to leverage existing cables.”

About Southern Cross

Southern Cross Cable Network provides fast, direct, and secure international bandwidth from Australia, New Zealand and Hawaii to the heart of the Internet in the USA.

The Southern Cross Cable Network comprises two submarine communications cables which were first commissioned in November 2000 and January 2001 at a cost of USD1.3 billion. They provide Australasian broadband users with international connections to the US West coast where global Internet hubs are located. The Southern Cross Network has been engineered until 2025. In 2001 total installed capacity was 80 Gbps, and in January 2003 the total network was expanded to 480Gbps. Upgrades in 2009 and 2010 increased capacity to 1.2Tbps. The 40G Coherent technology upgrade in 2012 increased total lit capacity to 1.6Tbps with the current 100G Coherent upgrade to increase lit capacity to 2.6Tbps by Q3 2013.

The Southern Cross Cable Network is owned by Telecom NZ (50%), Singtel-Optus (40%) and Verizon Business (10%).

Southern Cross Cable Network has offices in Bermuda, Sydney, Auckland and Wellington. For more information visit Southern Cross at: http://www.southerncrosscables.com

About Ciena

Ciena is the network specialist. We collaborate with customers worldwide to unlock the strategic potential of their networks and fundamentally change the way they perform and compete. Ciena leverages its deep expertise in packet and optical networking and distributed software automation to deliver solutions in alignment with OPⁿ, its approach for building open next-generation networks. We enable a high-scale, programmable infrastructure that can be controlled and adapted by network-level applications, and provide open interfaces to coordinate computing, storage and network resources in a unified, virtualized environment. Investors are encouraged to review the Investors section of our website at www.ciena.com/investors, where we routinely post press releases, SEC filings, recent news, financial results, other announcements and, from time to time, exclusively post material information as with the other disclosure channels that we use.

Note to Ciena Investors

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-Q, which Ciena filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on June 12, 2013. Forward-looking statements include statements regarding Ciena’s expectations, beliefs, intentions or strategies regarding the future and can be identified by forward-looking words such 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 otherwise.

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