Nortel (Ciena) Rolls Out 100G

By Mark Evans | Published: December 14, 2009

It seems like a strange announcement but Nortel announced that it’s taking orders and shipping the first commercially-available 100G optical solution. The strange part is while Nortel is unveiling the product, the 100G business is part of the optical and Ethernet assets purchased by Ciena.

“Nortel’s 100G optical solution uses groundbreaking technology that allows service providers to meet the demands that high bandwidth applications like HD video on demand, online gaming and cloud computing are putting on their network,” Philippe Morin, president, Metro Ethernet Networks, said in a press release. “Our 100G solution is the result of years of dedicated research and development into this cutting-edge technology, and builds on two decades of innovation leadership in the optical industry.”

Nortel also announced that Verizon is the first service provider to turn up 100G on its live in-service customer network. Using Nortel’s 100G solution, Verizon is carrying live enterprise customer Private IP traffic over a 100G wavelength on an 893km link between Paris and Frankfurt.

In the press release, Nortel cited Ovum estimates that global demand for 100G line side DWDM transponders will grow rapidly over the next five years, reaching US$455 million by 2014.

For more, check out this Light Reading story.

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  • bankrupt_bob

    Change the name of the company to Cientel ;>)

  • Teleguy

    It's big news and Nortel and Ciena are not one company yet.

  • less

    Bummer that them laser signals are metric and we use imperial measure.

  • fishymcdonk

    Exactly why is this strange? Until sometime next year Ciena and Nortel are competitors. Not to mention all the other folks racing to release 100G. It is big news. It is Nortel news.

  • less

    http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALe…

    Shares of Ciena Corp. took a hit Monday after S&P announced the telecommunications equipment maker would be replaced by Visa Inc. on the S&P 500 index.

    S&P said Friday that Visa would take Ciena's place on the index Dec. 18 because Ciena is one of several companies in the index no longer representative of the market indicator.

    The company is also in the process of acquiring assets from Nortel Networks Corp. for $530 million, which has some analysts worried in part because of the size of the business that Ciena is poised to buy.

    The size of Nortel's, what – execs' pending Xmas bonuses?

    Ciena's shares fell 44 cents, or 3.8 percent, to $11.06 in morning trading. In the past 52 weeks, the stock has traded between $4.98 and $16.64.

    Meanwhile, Visa shares added $2.65, or 3.3 percent, to $83.99. They earlier set a new 52-week high of $85.91.

    Hm. Hackney probably bought a few of Tiger Woods' golf clubs on credit to better score with girls.

  • less

    Sure enough. Not too long ago the ticker read: “S&P downgrades Ciena to 'B,' may cut again”

    Said the S&P: “We'll B Ciena”

  • GoProto

    Oh yeah, well check this out: You should not be surprised one little bit. Anything the NT names touches shrivels up instantly it seems…

    “Standard & Poor’s lowered its credit ratings on Ciena in November from “B+” to “B” following its winning $769 million bid for bankrupt Nortel Networks’ Metro Ethernet Networks business. Ciena’s third quarter loss grew to $26.7 million, compared to a net loss of $25.4 million in the same quarter a year ago.”

    “

  • GoProto

    Personally, I find it funny to see a statement about “a winning bid for bankrupt NT” isn't that an oxymoron?

  • GoProto

    score with the girls, before or after he grabs their faces – or is that what he considers “scoring”?

  • less

    Maybe Joel will now crash his SUV like a champion into the lucky girl's for better effect, then take out a few car of her windows. Then take her out.

    To dinner, of course.

  • bankrupt_bob

    <<…reaching US$455 million by 2014.>>

    I just figured it out… by then, that will be the equivalent of today's US$455.00 ….thanks Obama!

    (It's not George's fault ;>)

  • less

    Sheesh. I'm reading 445 mb here and 100 gb there… for some of us 2-3 kb is a fortune anymore, thanks in part to Ciena's “new” Zb Management.

  • less

    Hey “ciena nortel” can also spell

    “ancient lore”!

  • less

    In all seriousness, I wish something good might still come from all this, I only wish that its success and fruits of labor would actually reach those who deserve it.

  • whopperscan

    This is a good thing. All the people beavering away at developing market-leading features, they would want a biggy like this to come out so their personal work is recognized. Why wait? The lawyers & administrators will want to keep charging fees on this for ages before they permit it to be finalised. Look at Enterprise and Avaya, months later they're still in the early stages, still working under the Nortel banner, offices and paychecks. I wouldn't wait either, get the good news out asap.
    It also shows that Ciena is getting some serious R&D horsepower upgrades with the purchase. Good luck to all of them.

  • felixmk

    A $455M market for 100G in 4 years! Wow! Geez Nortel/Ciena might get a leading 35% share! That means $160M in revenue! Wow! At 15% ROS (a market leading fgure), that's $24M in profit a year in 2014! Wow!…NOT

  • my2cents4free

    Yup, quite small (and i do think that 15% ROS is best case)… how much R&D $$$ you think got invested to enable this 100G solution? What is the ROI on invested $$$?

  • happy2b

    ROI has always been MEN's downfall, they get excited by revenue numbers only, not by net income, profit margins, costs, etc. Business analysis state 15% profit margins means you're at best a break even company, in order to be profitable your profit margins have to 50-60%, or you're selling high profit services (80-90%) for products, in order to offset low margins on products.

  • happy2b

    Nortel getting their 100G solution to market before Ciena's will provide MEN management, the ammo to fight for control of the new Nortel-Ciena company
    - We were first to market with 100G
    - Our 100G is selling, your is not and your is not ready
    - We are leaders, you're not
    - We generate more revenue, than you
    - We larger than you
    - We picked you to partner with us

    Therefore Nortel's MEN management should be running the new Nortel-Ciena, and you will doing things the MEN way.

  • Texan2

    Love it… How about a few more.

    Ericson-Nortel -> Coroner Enlists/Colon Reinserts/Nicer Losers Not
    Kapsch-Nortel -> Craps Let Honk
    Hitachi-Nortel -> Oriental Hitch/Hernia Itch Lot
    Avaya-Nortel -> Anal Avert Yo

  • protosphere

    “In the press release, Nortel cited Ovum estimates that global demand for 100G line side DWDM transponders will grow rapidly over the next five years, reaching US$455 million by 2014.”

    Nortel cited? like Nortel said… oh no…

    It isn't Nortel's anymore anyways, it's Ciena's isn't it?

    As for $455M in 5 years, how much will be profit? Nuff about revenues already, $10B never saw a penny for a decade but lost tons.

    Years out again…like half a decade this time… why not 100G's with their past largest customer /bagholder who wanted better rates with Avaya… what is the profit or is this yet another technological breakthrough given away like BSNL

    I know this is not a very polite thing to say but I hope Ciena didn't acquire the hot air crooks with so many still there , given the traditional hype in press releases, first Avaya in how there is no better time to buy and now this…phhht… I don't buy anything Nortel tries and feed anyone like a thousand flies just can't be wrong.

  • protosphere

    even a $24M loss would be a great improvement on that revenue… but hey. every cent helps if they can maintain the bone us structure

    never mind earnings, defer a few bucks, play musical chairs with the reserves, more press releases like this and Ciena's stock will soar! The new people from Nortel will know the drill.

  • protosphere

    that'd be the employees and shareholders who supported them… not likely

    only management won this battle…not war… as they lost too with all that is to come.

  • Teleguy

    Remembering that they also hold the lead in the 40G market, so if the 100G market does not take off, the 40G certainly will.

    I think that $455M number is too low, but we'll see.

  • less

    haha – enlist coroners, for sure.

    Mike Zafirovski – “K, so I'm fake vizir” (from Arabic wazr, burdened, minister)

  • TongueInCheek

    Isn't a DWDM Transponder just the optical inferface that performs re-timing, re-transmission and re-shaping of the optical signal? A DWDM Transponder does not include the Multiplexing functions that are required to map multiple signals to a wavelength, before it is processed by the Transponder.

    Given this, the DWDM Transponder is just a small part of the overall optical system so people shouldn't get too hung up on the market forecast.

  • wasthere

    Yeah, future is so bright I saw Philippe Morin wearing shades yesterday ;-)

  • less

    Bonuses all around! 100g for every 100G sold!

  • free_agent

    It's not at all strange that Nortel announces things about its ongoing businesses that it is selling to Ciena. Certainly Ciena has an intense financial interest in keeping working the PR machine of the business they are buying. I suppose Nortel (having settled on the price) is less directly motivated, but I'm sure the purchase agreement requires them to keep the business rolling, and if any of the purchase price is Ciena securities, Nortel cares a lot about Ciena making a profit.

  • get_smart

    “Nortel getting their 100G solution to market before Ciena's will provide MEN management, the ammo to fight for control of the new Nortel-Ciena company”…

    Which part of the 100G and 40G success is Philippe Morin or his cabinet responsible for ? If it was not for Dino Di Perna's skunk work, they would have fumble that segment also.

  • less

    In the tradition of its past earnings, Nortel has now issued Spelling Restatements concluding:

    Ericsson-Nortel -> still the Recognized Leader so nyah
    Ciena-Nortel -> uh, This is the Way we really meant to go
    Kapsch-Nortel -> Honkers get Crap from Joel

  • realinfo

    Agree with get-smart. Dino Diperna and few of his designers leaders are driving MEN innovation and value. However, Morin, Mike, David, Larry, Shauna, Sergio, Scott are just pure overhead.

    I am worried about Ciena now. They bought a political management machine and they will cause Ciena big troubles. These leaders have to go before Ciena deal turns bad.

  • Pingback: When It Comes to VoIP, Nortel Rules

  • happy2bG

    The sad part of the Ciena deal is 100% of Nortel's R&D team will be going to Ciena which will include a lot of the useless overhead management, and team leaders.

  • less

    I'm sure their LSS stats are nigh perfect. And thats what really counts.

  • zeroman

    you mean the eye patches from the same internal pipe dreams of a rocketing 40G market.

  • zeroman

    Nocienotel

  • zeroman

    Ciena management is out. MEN management is in. David snared Goliath but Goliath is going to fal and crush David.

  • bankrupt_bob

    ; > )

  • happy2b

    Dino and the Italian mafia were the reason for Optical being a black hole, don’t get me wrong, Dino was a nice guy, but he and his crew were from another era. They used the exact, same old BNR – DMS business model from the 80s, only funded their pet projects, didn’t care about anything else but their pet projects, believed you have to spend more money to make money, drive the technology then find a market for the technology, weren’t interested in profit margins, had no control over lower management (the only place where upper management or corporate can say this way things are and lower management are allowed to say screw you I’m doing in my way and allowed to get away with it), upper management had no idea what lower management were doing only knew the titles, spending out of control (no tracking or accountability on spending, their attitude dish the money out, if no one complains you must be doing a good job, mean while lower management is spending/wasting money like crazy, giving outside vendors huge amount of money for little or no work, and no one cares), duplication of job roles and functions, thrived on emergency, fire fighting mode and spending what ever it takes to get the job done (mean while it’s pointed out if you are in emergency fire fighting mode 24/7, your process is wrong or someone isn’t doing their job, they didn’t care prefer fire fighting mode), it was a hands off management style with no checks or balances in place.

  • happy2b

    Dino and the Italian mafia were the reason for Optical being a black hole, don’t get me wrong, Dino was a nice guy, but he and his crew were from another era. They used the exact, same old BNR – DMS business model from the 80s, only funded their pet projects, didn’t care about anything else but their pet projects, believed you have to spend more money to make money, drive the technology then find a market for the technology, weren’t interested in profit margins, had no control over lower management (the only place where upper management or corporate can say this way things are and lower management are allowed to say screw you I’m doing in my way and allowed to get away with it), upper management had no idea what lower management were doing only knew the titles, spending out of control (no tracking or accountability on spending, their attitude dish the money out, if no one complains you must be doing a good job, mean while lower management is spending/wasting money like crazy, giving outside vendors huge amount of money for little or no work, and no one cares), duplication of job roles and functions, thrived on emergency, fire fighting mode and spending what ever it takes to get the job done (mean while it’s pointed out if you are in emergency fire fighting mode 24/7, your process is wrong or someone isn’t doing their job, they didn’t care prefer fire fighting mode), it was a hands off management style with no checks or balances in place.

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