CIENA Corp. and CEC-IDN Telecom Ltd., provider of optical networking solutions to Chinese operators, today announced that they have signed a memorandum of understanding for collaboration on manufacturing and research and development activities in China.
CIENA and CEC-IDN intend to collaborate on the joint manufacture of CIENA's CoreDirector and MetroDirector K2 products in the People's Republic of China (PRC). This manufacturing collaboration will first involve the MetroDirector K2 and will be carried out in a sequence of phases designed to ensure high standards of product quality and availability.
CIENA and CEC-IDN also plan to jointly establish a software research and development center in Shanghai for the development of a single, integrated, and localized Network Management System (NMS) for the CIENA/CEC-IDN solution. The Center will focus on tailoring CIENA's ON-Center NMS software to meet the unique requirements of the PRC market, including the development of a Chinese-language graphical user interface (GUI) and the integration of CEC-IDN's existing access products.
The memorandum of understanding follows a successful six-month collaboration between the two companies, who had entered into distribution and technical co-operation agreements in 2001. CEC-IDN has deployed CIENA's CoreDirector and MetroDirector K2 products and has placed several additional purchase orders with the company.
CEC-IDN (Hong Kong) was founded by China Electronics Corp (CEC), the largest electronic enterprise in China, and IDN Telecom Inc., a privately held broadband and metro access solution company with headquarters in Fremont, CA.
For more information about CIENA Corp. (Linthicum, MD), visit the company's Web site at www.ciena.com.