TE SubCom, a TE Connectivity Ltd. (NYSE: TEL) company, and Ciena (NYSE: CIEN) have announced a partnership aimed at supporting open submarine cable network approaches. The alliance will enable customers to more easily combine TE SubCom's wet plant designs and marine installation with Ciena's 6500 Packet-Optical Platform to accelerate the evolution toward software-defined submarine networks.
The alliance leverages TE SubCom's Open Cables business model, designed to enable the company's customers a wider choice of technology suppliers. While TE SubCom offers coherent transport platforms for undersea cable systems (see, for example, "TE Subcom demos coherent 100G on transatlantic submarine cable system"), the companies say an increasing number of submarine cable operators have used the Open Cables approach to select Ciena optical transport equipment.
"Having manufactured our own submarine line termination equipment for decades, we are well aware which technologies are required to efficiently utilize our wet plant system. Ciena produces innovative, flexible and responsive technology that will provide for a fully optimized undersea cable network," said Aaron Stucki, president of TE SubCom. "The Open Cables model has enabled us to offer our customers options that have never before been available in the undersea cable industry. That model is now further enhanced through this agreement with Ciena, as cable operators wishing to deploy Ciena's equipment on TE SubCom networks will be able to do so efficiently, with the full support of our engineering team and our commitment to on-time delivery of an end-to-end solution."
Customers interested in combining Ciena equipment with TE SubCom-designed wet plant can purchase the total package from TE SubCom. They also continue to have the option of contacting the two suppliers separately.
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