Infinera Partners in U.S. UCAN national broadband network
SEPTEMBER 8, 2010 -- Infinera (Nasdaq: INFN) has announced a partnership in the recently funded “United States Unified Community Anchor Network,” also known as U.S. UCAN.
In early July, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) of the U.S. Department of Commerce announced that the U.S. UCAN project has been awarded $62.5 million as part of the federal broadband stimulus program. Infinera was a member of the partner group that submitted this application, and will be providing support to the partnership as part of the matching funds required by the NTIA. The U.S. UCAN partnership is led by Internet2 and National LambdaRail, the nation’s two national research and education networks, as well as the Northern Tier Network Consortium (NTNC) and Indiana University.
U.S. UCAN will leverage Infinera's Digital Optical Networks as part of a planned 3.2-Tbps network that will eventually support 200,000 community anchor institutions across the country. According to the grant proposal, services that will be enabled by this new network include telemedicine, distance learning, and other services to help rural areas and depressed areas use technology to achieve opportunities on a par with other parts of the country.
Infinera is already a supplier to both Internet2 and NTNC.
“Internet2 is pleased to extend our longstanding partnership with Infinera through their participation in this important national project. Infinera’s innovative technology, excellent reliability, and ease of use will be critical to ensuring the advanced network capabilities promised by this network,” said Rob Vietzke, Internet2 executive director of network services.
“Our Infinera network has provided a highly scalable easy to operate network which interoperates well with other university networks based on Infinera, and we are pleased to extend our relationship and partner with Infinera on the important U.S. UCAN project, which will bring greater access to advanced services to many communities in our region,” said Michael Adelaine, president of the Northern Tier Network Consortium.
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