The Philippines’ leading telecommunications provider will be the country’s first network with 40G, 100G and OTN switching capabilities further upgrading its Domestic Fiber Optic Network to support next-generation fixed and mobile voice, video and data services.

MANILA, PHILIPPINES and LINTHICUM, Md., U.S.A. – July 24, 2012 – The Philippines' telecoms leader PLDT  (NYSE: PHI, PSE: TEL) has partnered with US-based Ciena® Corporation (NASDAQ: CIEN), the network specialist, to increase the capacity and service flexibility of its backbone Domestic Fiber Optic Network (DFON). PLDT will deploy Ciena’s coherent 100 Gigabits per second (100G) technology and Optical Transport Network (OTN) switching solutions.

“As the first 100G network in the Philippines, this deployment will add significant bandwidth scalability, reliability and intelligence to PLDT’s network infrastructure. The network upgrade will complete PLDT’s core network modernization program and support the delivery of next-generation services to customers such as fiber-to-the-home, fiber-to-the-building, LTE/4G, IPTV and triple-play services,” PLDT President and CEO Napoleon L. Nazareno said.

“As the largest service provider in the Philippines, it is critical that we invest in proven, industry-leading infrastructure that ensures long-term customer satisfaction,” he added. “This reliable infrastructure will not only benefit the customers of PLDT but also the subscribers of our cellular subsidiaries, Smart Communications and Sun Cellular.”

Ciena VP and General Manager for Asia Pacific Anthony MacLachlan said that Ciena's vision is to provide a network architecture that enables service providers to create more intelligent networks that can be programmed to adapt to application needs, support dynamic customer requirements, and quickly roll-out new services.

“With this first deployment in the Philippines of coherent 40G, 100G and OTN switching solutions from Ciena, PLDT is strengthening its leadership position and further differentiating its network in the highly competitive Philippines marketplace,” McLachlan pointed out.

With this regional and long-haul domestic network upgrade, PLDT will become the first network operator in the Philippines to deploy 100G, which will allow the operator to extract more capacity out of existing fiber and support the delivery of high-bandwidth services and applications. PLDT will also be the first network operator in the Philippines to deploy Ciena’s 6500 Packet-Optical Platform with WaveLogic™coherent optical technology, integrated ROADM and OTN switching.

“PLDT’s deployment of 100G in its domestic network puts the Philippines in a leadership position in Asia-Pacific, amongst only a handful of other countries in the region to do so thus far,” said McLachlan.

These advanced optical technologies add significant bandwidth scalability, reliability and intelligence to PLDT’s network infrastructure, allowing the carrier to offer 40G and 100G-based services to meet forecasted demand for high-speed service delivery, driven by an increase in data traffic from both fixed and wireless broadband.

OTN is a next-generation industry-standard network protocol that provides for the efficient transport of multiple types of legacy, real-time and Ethernet traffic over a converged optical network. ROADM or reconfigurable optical add-drop multiplexer is a device that can add, block, pass or redirect modulated infrared (IR) and visible light beams of various wavelengths in a fiber optic network. ROADMs are used in systems that employ wavelength division multiplexing.

Ciena’s coherent optical technology will eliminate a significant number of network regenerators, thus lowering operational costs. Ciena’s switched OTN design will ensure improved network utilization, and the nine-way ROADMs will help to improve resiliency with the addition of new photonic routes.

This upgrade of PLDT's DFON network, part of the company's two-year network modernization program launched in 2011, is expected to be ready for commercial services before the end of the year. The project entails installing new Ciena electronics in the nodes of our high-usage loops and connecting them to existing fibers.

PLDT is also deploying Ciena’s OneControl Unified Management System for centralized and multilayer network management as well as Ciena Specialist Services to help minimize implementation costs and ensure that the network is turned up efficiently and effectively.