Mobily and Ciena Team to Deploy Middle East’s First 100G Network in Riyadh

LINTHICUM, Md. - Ciena® Corporation (NASDAQ: CIEN), the network specialist, and Mobily, the region’s fastest growing mobile operator, today announced the activation of the first commercial 100 Gigabit per second (Gb/s) network in the Middle East. This regional first, deployed within the Riyadh metropolitan area, is an extension of Mobily’s highly resilient, adaptable and scalable nationwide network.

Mobily, which owns more than 40 percent of Saudi Arabia’s mobile market, recently announced its selection of optical transport and switching platforms, Carrier Ethernet solutions, as well as management and maintenance services from Ciena – all aimed at supporting high-bandwidth services. The 100G coherent service delivered on Ciena’s ActivFlex 6500 Packet-Optical Platform – the industry’s first commercially available system equipped with coherent 100G optics – is key to that architecture. Mobily’s new 100G capabilities give the operator the ability to quickly and easily add network capacity in the crucial metropolitan area of Riyadh.

“This 100G deployment demonstrates our ongoing focus on innovation, aimed at bringing leading edge technology offerings to our customers,” said Abdul Aziz Al Tamami, chief operations officer at Mobily. “The demand for bandwidth coming from Saudi businesses is growing steadily, and applications like video, teleconferencing and cloud computing are fuelling a significant portion of this growth. By embracing Ciena’s 100G coherent technology, we are capable of fulfilling the needs of even the most demanding of our customers, while future-proofing our network for the years to come.”

Ciena’s 100G coherent technology will allow for a total throughput of 8.8 Terabits of data per second on Mobily’s network, carried over 88 optical channels on a single strand of optical fiber.

“Our close work with Mobily represents a clear validation of the leading-edge offerings across our product portfolio, from Carrier Ethernet to intelligent optical switching to 100G coherent transmission. We are especially pleased to join Mobily in deploying the first 100G network in the Middle East, reinforcing our reputation as the leader in live field deployments of coherent optical systems,” said François Locoh-Donou, Ciena’s vice president and general manager for EMEA.

The pioneer in coherent technology for optical transmission, Ciena is also the commercial leader in this market with more than 6,000 coherent 40G/100G line interfaces shipped to more than 70 customers across the globe. Ciena’s ActivFlex 6500 platform equipped with coherent 100G optics has been operating in live networks since December 2009 and provides a simple upgrade path from existing 10G and 40G networks – increasing the amount of bandwidth existing networks can carry by as much as tenfold – with minimal network changes and investment to cost-effectively maximize traffic transport.

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. With focused innovation, Ciena brings together the reliability and capacity of optical networking with the flexibility and economics of Ethernet, unified by a software suite that delivers the industry’s leading network automation. We routinely post recent news, financial results and other important announcements and information about Ciena on our website. For more information, visit www.ciena.com.

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-K, which Ciena filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on December 22, 2010. 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.