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Internet2 FiberCo and Ciena Partner to Deliver Professional Services and Optical Networking Equipment for Research and Higher Education Community

Posted on: Tuesday, 1 May 2007, 09:00 CDT

ANN ARBOR, Mich. and LINTHICUM, Md., May 1 /PRNewswire/ -- Internet2 FiberCo(R), a fiber holding company formed to support dark fiber initiatives for U.S. research and higher education, and Ciena(R) Corporation , the network specialist, today announced that the companies have teamed to provide a suite of customized professional services and optical networking equipment solutions to assist Internet2 members with planning, installing, and managing their advanced network infrastructures. Through the agreement, Internet2 members will be able to choose Ciena's industry-leading products and services to support the development of regional optical infrastructures that can reliably sustain the most leading-edge network applications and services.

"The research and education community continues to evolve their network infrastructures to take advantage of the latest advances in optical networking that can support the most high-performance network applications and experimentation," said Linda Roos, project manager of Internet2 FiberCo. "FiberCo's new agreement with Ciena builds on our community's longstanding partnership with the company and provides our members more flexibility and choices to meet their network development and management needs."

FiberCo will offer Ciena's basic and professional services to provide Internet2 members end-to-end solutions and support for any and all components of their dynamic research networks, including network management and maintenance. The range of offerings includes: network architecture and design, installation, vendor-neutral engineering support, staging and implementation services, and program management.

Additionally, FiberCo can offer Internet2 members a wide range of products within Ciena's FlexSelect(TM) Architecture to provide optical transport and switching capabilities that enable dynamic Ethernet lightpath connectivity. These product offerings include the CN 4200(TM) FlexSelect Advanced Services Platform, the CoreDirector(R) Multiservice Optical Switch, the CN 2000(R) Storage and LAN Extension Platform and the CoreStream(R) Agility Optical Transport System.

"A partner to the research and education community for more than a decade, Ciena remains focused on advancing technology that can meet the evolving connectivity needs of research networks," said Jeff Verrant, director of research and education initiatives at Ciena. "Our collaboration with FiberCo strategically extends our solutions to members of the Internet2 community to support the advancement of next-generation, high-performance networking, while providing a flexible foundation to meet network challenges in the future."

The new FiberCo partnership extends Ciena's collaboration with leading institutions in the research networking community, including numerous initiatives with Internet2 members like the advancement of optical control plane technologies and scalability to 100G connectivity and beyond.

FiberCo has arranged with Ciena to provide pricing for these network design and implementation services, which can be tailored to fit individual customer needs.

About Internet2 FiberCo(R)

Internet2 FiberCo provides a means for acquiring, holding, and assigning fiber optic network assets in support of the Internet2 community's goals of developing and deploying advanced network applications and technologies. FiberCo facilitates the ongoing development of regional optical networking initiatives around the country to complement existing Internet2 network infrastructure while providing a strategic fiber acquisition capability on the national scale. For more information, visit: http://www.fiberco.org/.

About Ciena

Ciena Corporation is the network specialist, focused on expanding the possibilities for its customers' networks while reducing their cost of ownership. The company's systems, software and services target and cure specific network pain points so that telcos, cable operators, governments and enterprises can best exploit the new applications that are driving their businesses forward. For more information, visit http://www.ciena.com/.

NOTE TO CIENA INVESTORS

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-K, which Ciena filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on March 2, 2007. 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.

Internet2 FiberCo

CONTACT: Media, Nicole Anderson of Ciena Corporation, +1-410-694-5786,or pr@ciena.com; or Lauren Rotman of Internet2, +1-202-331-5345, orlauren@internet2.edu; or Investors, Jessica Towns of Ciena Corporation,+1-888-243-6623, or ir@ciena.com

Web site: http://www.fiberco.org/http://www.ciena.com/

Source: PRNewswire

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