DataGroup to Deliver DWDM Network in Ukraine with Cisco Optical Technology

New 6,500km Nationwide Fibre Optic Network to Speed Service Delivery

KIEV, Ukraine, February 15, 2006 - Cisco Systems® today announced that Ukrainian telecommunications company, DataGroup, is introducing a new portfolio of high-capacity services based on the Cisco® ONS 15454 Multiservice Transport Platform (MSTP). The new 6500 km countrywide fibre-optic network will provide the dense wavelength-division multiplexing (DWDM) backbone for delivering Ethernet-based services in all regional centers of Ukraine. In addition, it will help enable DataGroup to take advantage of the reconfigurable optical add/drop multiplexer (ROADM) capabilities of the Cisco solution to speed service delivery to clients.
The Ukrainian company aims to deliver a new portfolio of services ranging from high-speed Ethernet connectivity and carrier interconnect services for the Ukrainian and Pan-European market, to managed storage area network (SAN) extension services. The new infrastructure deployment will form a key part of DataGroup’s overall IP Next-Generation Network (IP NGN) architecture supporting service delivery.

“In evaluating the Cisco portfolio, we recognized that the flexible reconfigurable nature of the ONS 15454 would help us to considerably lower the operational costs associated with running our optical infrastructure by allowing us to easily provision new services,” commented Alexander Atamenko, Fibre Optic Network Deployment Project Manager for DataGroup. “In a geographically diverse area such as Ukraine, the ability to reduce our total cost of ownership through the ability to modify our network configuration remotely with limited manual intervention or service interruption was one of the major factors in our choice.”

DataGroup also aims to take advantage of the ability to aggregate multiple traffic types on a single wavelength as part of its service portfolio to provide ’virtual fibres’. As part of the service portfolio, Datagroup aims to move beyond data transport to offer financial customers data center interconnect services to support data replication and mirroring between remote locations. DataGroup has also already established high-speed links between Kiev and major financial markets such as Frankfurt, Germany.

With the Cisco ONS 15454 MSTP, service providers can deliver multiple Ethernet, Frame Relay and SDH services, alongside Fibre Channel-based storage and mainframe connectivity services on a single 10-Gbit/s wavelength.

“As enterprise customers recognize the benefits of convergence in their own network infrastructures, they expect their providers to deliver converged transport solutions that can reduce the need to maintain multiple wide-area networks,” commented Johann Strauss, business development manager for optical networking, Cisco Systems. “Working in tandem with Cisco’s service creation teams, DataGroup has put together a revenue generating service portfolio, based on technology which will help minimize its own operational costs for running the network.”

About DataGroup

The telecommunication company Datagroup is the leading Ukrainian operator of integrated telecommunication services for corporate clients. Datagroup was formed by the merger of three basic companies - a satellite communication operator, Datasat; an all-Ukrainian data communications network operator, Datacom; and a telephone operator, Crocus Telecom.

About Cisco Systems

Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO) is the worldwide leader in networking for the Internet. News and information are available at www.cisco.com. Cisco equipment in Europe is supplied by Cisco Systems International BV, a wholly owned subsidiary of Cisco Systems, Inc.

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