Ritter Communications Expands Regional Fiber Network with Ciena Packet Networking and Coherent Optical Solutions

Arkansas-based service provider to offer high-speed, low-latency communications and business services; support mobile backhaul requirements for Tier 1 mobile operators

HANOVER, Md.–(BUSINESS WIRE)– Ciena^® Corporation (NAS: CIEN) , the network specialist, today announced that Ritter Communications, an Arkansas-based communications provider, has deployed Ciena’s packet networking and converged packet optical technologies throughout its regional fiber optic network that serves over 25,000 Internet subscribers in Arkansas and west Tennessee. With this powerful combination of packet networking and converged packet optical solutions, the expanded network will provide businesses, community anchors and residents in previously underserved locations with advanced Ethernet service delivery and a cost-effective means to transport high-speed data services while also providing carriers with cellular backhaul and business services.

Key Facts:

• Ritter is a fifth-generation family business founded in 1886. Today, through a modern, intelligent infrastructure, Ritter owns and operates two rural local exchange carriers (RLECs) in northeast and north central Arkansas, a competitive local exchange carrier (CLEC) and a fiber optic network in Jonesboro, Arkansas. In December 2012, Ritter completed its purchase of Millington Telephone Company, Inc. and Millington CATV, Inc. which represents approximately 20,000 business and residential customers in parts of Shelby, Tipton, Haywood and Fayette counties in West Tennessee.
• Ciena’s packet networking solutions, including its 5150 Service Aggregation Switch and 3930 Service Delivery Switch, provide Ritter with increased scalability and protection of services needed to meet their growing end-user demands. The platforms support leading Operations, Administration, and Maintenance (OAM) standards, and provide Service Level Agreement (SLA) insights allowing Ritter to ensure more accurate service management and fault isolation across a greater number of services.
• Ritter is also leveraging Ciena’s 6500 Packet-Optical Platform equipped with WaveLogic Coherent Optical Processors, a robust solution that will increase capacity and support the mobile backhaul demands of two Tier 1 U.S. wireless carriers and their migration to 4G services. The 6500 allows Ritter to easily scale capacity and program its network to deliver 10G and 40G wavelength services today, with the ability to scale to 100G in the future.
• Ritter will also leverage packet networking capabilities recently …read more
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