Ritter Communications Achieves MEF Carrier Ethernet 2.0 Certification with Ciena Powered Network

Ritter Communications, an Arkansas-based communications provider, recently received its MEF Carrier Ethernet 2.0 (CE 2.0) certification based on Ciena’s packet networking products. Achieving CE 2.0 compliance validates that Ritter meets the high industry standards to provide its customers with a faster and more consistent rollout of Carrier Ethernet services, including both port-based and VLAN-aware versions of E-Line, E-LAN, and E-Access service types, and can confidently offer wholesale services that meet stringent operator-to-operator requirements. This ensures Ritter will be able to continue providing businesses, community anchors and residents in previously underserved locations with the benefits of advanced Ethernet service delivery and broadband connectivity.

Key Facts:

• Ritter is a fifth-generation family business founded in 1886. Today, through a modern, intelligent infrastructure, Ritter owns and operates three rural local exchange carriers (RLECs) in northern Arkansas and western Tennessee; a fiber based competitive local exchange carrier (CLEC) in key communities in northeast & central Arkansas; and, a wholesale services network throughout Arkansas and western Tennessee.
• Ritter can now provide its customers with certified E-Line, E-LAN, and E-Access services based on Ciena’s packet networking portfolio. MEF CE 2.0 certification of E-Access services enables Ritter to market these services to global operators needing “off-net” access that meets the stringent MEF criteria in its footprint. Certified E-Line and E-LAN services improve competitive advantage by providing high-quality mobile backhaul services to large mobile operators.

• This certification builds on Ritter’s long history with Ciena and the company’s packet networking portfolio, including the 5160 and 5150 Service Aggregation Switches and the 3900 family of service delivery switches. Using technologies such as MPLS-TP and G.8032, Ritter has assembled a network that provides both ease of deployment and high reliability enabling rigorous service level agreements.

Executive Comments:

• “Our efforts to achieve globally recognized MEF certification for both our employees and our services demonstrates our commitment to network quality. This allows us to ensure our Enterprise and Wholesale customers requiring connectivity in Arkansas and Tennessee are able to obtain world class, quality CE 2.0 Ethernet services and features throughout the diverse metro and rural markets that we serve.”
  –    Greg Sunderwood, Vice President of Engineering and Product, Ritter Communications 

• “Bandwidth consumption is surging globally, and this growth would not be possible without the ubiquity of Ethernet being adopted across all types of applications, such as data center interconnect, mobile backhaul, and private line business services. For operators like Ritter, MEF CE 2.0 certified networks will help improve their ability to quickly and cost-effectively deliver services that meet stringent customer requirements.”
  –    Jason Phipps, General Manager and Vice President, North America, Ciena

About Ritter Communications
Ritter Communications is a leader among local independent communications providers, serving enterprise business and wholesale customers with competitive network routing utilizing a unique combination of geographic coverage and high-quality bandwidth. The company also provides data, voice and video services to residential and small business customers in 59 communities across three states. 

Operating from headquarters in Jonesboro, Arkansas, Ritter has partnered to provide connectivity to national and regional broadband networks. The company uses the latest technologies to support a solid broadband infrastructure ensuring performance, reliability and superior customer service. By investing heavily in broadband initiatives, Ritter’s customers have access to advanced business services such as broadband Internet up to 10 Gbps, hosted and managed voice services, Metro Ethernet, SIP Trunking, virtual servers, colocation, LAN, WAN and VPN connectivity, remote data backup and more.

In addition to demonstrated investment in served communities by deploying proven, best-in-class infrastructure and technology coupled with a world class customer-focused experience, Ritter’s corporate commitment extends to support of education, healthcare, government, and local civic and charitable organizations.  For more information, visitwww.rittercommunications.com.

About Ciena
Ciena (NASDAQ:CIEN, news, filings) 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 its OPⁿ architecture for 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. For updates on Ciena news, follow us on Twitter @Ciena or on LinkedIn.

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Kacie Levy
Ciena Corporation
(877) 857-7377
klevy@ciena.com

Susan Christian
Ritter Communications
(870) 336-2323
Susan.Christian@RitterCommunications.com

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