Great Plains Communications Upgrades Multi-state Network with Ciena’s Coherent Routing Solution

Technology enhancements enable new 5G, cloud services and enrich customer experience

BLAIR, Neb. & HANOVER, Md.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Great Plains Communications (GPC), the leading Midwestern telecommunications provider with a growing, privately owned 16,500+ mile fiber network reaching 13 states, is deploying Ciena's (NYSE: CIEN) Coherent Routing solution and WaveLogic 5 Nano (WL5n) technology. This deployment will increase GPC’s network capacity, reliability, and resiliency to adapt to the continually increasing bandwidth needs of business, carrier, and residential customers.

With the enhanced capabilities made possible by the network upgrade, GPC can:

• Support 5G and xHaul services for fiber-to-the-tower (FTTT) customers up to 10Gb/s—10 times the previous capacity
• Provide high-performance, scalable 400G Data Center Interconnect (DCI) services to large cloud and data center operators
• Ensure the utmost resiliency of Layer 2 VPNs with Segment Routing for the protection of packet services

“We strive to continuously improve our network to meet rising bandwidth demands with greater scalability and agility,” said Tony Thakur, Chief Technology Officer, Great Plains Communications. “GPC is committed to providing a customer experience that meets or exceeds the changing needs and expectations of our customers, whether it’s ultra-fast 5G, cloud computing, or high-bandwidth applications like streaming video and gaming—and Ciena’s coherent routing, switching, and optical technology plays a key role in this.”

“As a leading regional service provider in the Midwest, Great Plains Communications always has an eye to the future—especially when it comes to technology advancements and the growing traffic curve,” remarked Kevin Sheehan, CTO of the Americas, Ciena. “With Ciena’s innovative Coherent Routing solution, GPC can support voracious network demand and shifting traffic patterns, fulfilling the needs of its business and residential customers with new in-demand, high-bandwidth services for 5G, cloud connect, and more.”

Managed by Ciena’s Manage, Control and Plan (MCP) multi-layer domain controller, GPC’s network leverages Ciena’s Coherent Routing solution comprising the 5164 Router and 8110 Coherent Aggregation Router with WL5n 100G–400G coherent pluggables, as well as the 6500 Packet-Optical Platform, powered by WaveLogic coherent optics, for optical transport. Installation, turn-up, and test services for the network were provided by Ciena Services to accelerate time to market, and Ciena will perform ongoing maintenance services to ensure the network operates at peak performance.

Additional Information:

• At International Telecoms Week 2023, hear Ciena CTO Steve Alexander speak on Monday, May 15, at 3:05pm (Stage 2) – Subsea fireside chat: What’s the next evolutionary step for subsea cable technology
• GPC will be attending International Telecoms Week 2023 to meet with current and prospective customers

About Great Plains Communications

Great Plains Communications is one of the largest privately-owned digital infrastructure providers in the Midwest and is headquartered in Blair, Nebraska. It has over a century of experience providing business and residential customers in Colorado, Iowa, Nebraska and Southeastern Indiana communities with forward-thinking, fiber-based technology services including high-speed internet, Ethernet, video, hosted and traditional voice solutions. The company also takes pride in its progressive approach to accommodating the unique needs of all regional and national telecommunications carriers, LECs, ISPs, wireless carriers and other service providers utilizing superior engineering and custom-build strategies. At the core of its service offering is an extensive, MEF-certified 16,500+ mile regional fiber network that reaches 13 states: Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio, South Dakota, Wisconsin and Wyoming. The network offers community access rings, last-mile and middle-mile solutions, all fully supported by the company’s 24x7x365 Network Operations Center. For more information, visit www.gpcom.com.

About Ciena

Ciena (NYSE: CIEN) is a global leader in networking systems, services, and software. We build the most adaptive networks in the industry, enabling customers to anticipate and meet ever-increasing digital demands. For three-plus decades, Ciena has brought our humanity to our relentless pursuit of innovation. Prioritizing collaborative relationships with our customers, partners, and communities, we create flexible, open, and sustainable networks that better serve all users—today and into the future. For updates on Ciena, follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter, the Ciena Insights blog, or visit www.ciena.com.

Note to Ciena Investors

You are encouraged to review the Investors section of our website, where we routinely post press releases, SEC filings, recent news, financial results, and other announcements. From time to time, we exclusively post material information to this website along with other disclosure channels that we use. This press release contains certain forward-looking statements that are based on our current expectations, forecasts, information and assumptions. These statements involve inherent risks and uncertainties. Actual results or outcomes may differ materially from those stated or implied, because of risks and uncertainties, including those detailed in our most recent annual and quarterly reports filed with the SEC. Forward-looking statements include statements regarding our expectations, beliefs, intentions or strategies and can be identified by words such as "anticipate," "believe," "could," "estimate," "expect," "intend," "may," "should," "will," and "would" or similar words. Ciena assumes no obligation to update the information included in this press release, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

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Press Contacts:

Colleen Seery

Ciena Corporation

+1 (724) 419-5753

pr@ciena.com

Laura Kocher

Great Plains Communications

+1 (402) 456-6429

lkocher@gpcom.com

Investor Contact:

Gregg Lampf

Ciena Corporation

+1 (410) 694-5700

ir@ciena.com

Source: Ciena Corporation