Good news for Ciena Corporation (NASDAQ: CIEN) and EZchip Semiconductor Ltd. ( Public, NASDAQ: EZCH )

In recent days it was announced that  UK BT and Australia AAPT selected Ciena for Carrier Ethernet services build-out.
It is in a good agreement with analysts estimations that though overall Telco Capex to be soft, the carrier Ethernet Equipment market is expected to be an area of strength as carries increasingly use Ethernet gear to cope with soaring Internet traffic instead of more costly legacy technology.
The UN's Broadband Commission for Digital Development set target for Broadband Equipment Market to grow by 40%.
I wrote about it on October 25:
http://stockpicks247.blogspot.com/2011/10/good-news-for-alu-csco-jnpr-si-eric.html
Ciena (NASDAQ: CIEN) as equipment maker and EZchip Semiconductor Ltd. ( Public, NASDAQ: EZCH ) chip maker are in the same boat, that depends heavily on carrier Ethernet demand.

Ciena Corporation  (NASDAQ: CIEN) is a provider of communications networking equipment, software and services that support the transport, switching, aggregation and management of voice, video and data traffic. The Company’s packet-optical transport, packet-optical switching and carrier Ethernet service delivery products are used, individually or as part of an integrated solution, in networks operated by communications service providers, cable operators, governments and enterprises globally. Its communications networking products, through their embedded software and its network management software suites enable network operators to deliver enterprise communication services. The Company operates in four segments: packet-optical transport, packet-optical switching, carrier Ethernet Service delivery, and software and services. On March 19, 2010, the Company acquired optical networking and Carrier Ethernet assets of Nortel’s Metro Ethernet Networks business (MEN Business).

BT Group PLC (LSE: BT.A) is getting ready for the 100-Gbps era and beyond, judging from the news that it’s picked Ciena Corp. (NASDAQ: CIEN) to supply packet-optical transport equipment for its core 21st Century Network (21CN).

By deploying products from across Ciena's transport and switching portfolio, including 6500 and 4200 platforms, BT can take advantage of Ciena's multi-layer, multi-domain management suite – OneControl. The unified management system will be integrated into BT's existing operations support systems, offering service lifecycle control and monitoring for the entire network. 

Ciena has been a strategic supplier to BT since 2003. The company provides high-capacity transmission and switching equipment, which serves as the foundation for much of BT's existing network infrastructure .

BT to increase core network capacity at 21CN

Now BT plans to install intelligent optical transmission infrastructure based on Ciena’s 6500 packet-optical platform equipped with WaveLogic coherent optical processors. Ciena’s coherent technology supports 10G and 40G/100G wavelengths working side by side.

AAPT selects Ciena for Carrier Ethernet services buildout

Australian carrier AAPT has picked Ciena Corp. (NASDAQ: CIEN) to upgrade its nationwide fiber-optic network with next-generation Carrier Ethernet service delivery capabilities.

The upgrade will help AAPT to meet growing demand from businesses across Australia for high-quality Ethernet business services, providing reliable Ethernet private line and wide area LAN services to retail service providers. It will allow AAPT’s customers to deliver high-bandwidth, low-latency applications such as streaming video, cloud networking, business-to-business commerce, wireless backhaul, and wholesale connectivity.

With construction of Australia’s National Broadband Network (NBN) underway, AAPT says the upgraded network will address both pent-up demand for ultrafast broadband services, and position AAPT as a competitive supplier in Ethernet business services when the NBN becomes generally available.

The network will be built on Ciena’s 5410 and 5150 service aggregation switches, augmenting AAPT’s existing IP/MPLS core network. The new Carrier Ethernet network will deliver transport-class Ethernet services that far exceed the quality-of-service associated with traditional Ethernet while improving the service flexibility and speed-to-market delivered via traditional TDM networks.

“AAPT is focused on meeting our customer demands and expectations for the highest-quality Ethernet services in the Australian market. With this network build, we’re able to meet those goals and even offer customers strict Service Level Agreements, while maintaining low network operations costs. With a network scalable to the terabit-level, we can virtually meet any future demand for high-performance applications that may be enabled in the era of NBN,” said David Yuile, CEO, AAPT.