Arelion Doubles Capacity on Ashburn-Atlanta Route with Infinera’s L-band Technology

Seamless network upgrade enables global carrier to meet terabit-scale customer demands and diversity requirements

STOCKHOLM, Sweden and SAN JOSE, Calif., June 21, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Arelion and Infinera (NASDAQ: INFN) today announced that Arelion has seamlessly upgraded its existing Infinera FlexILS flexible-grid line system to support the L-band on a high-traffic route from Ashburn, VA to Atlanta. This upgrade doubles capacity per fiber pair, marking Arelion’s first route with active L-band capacity in service. Arelion can now bring more capacity to market on a continent where long-distance fiber is in short supply in many regions, helping Arelion continue to meet the capacity requirements of its service provider, content provider, and enterprise customers.

Arelion has seen substantial demand from customers for terabit-scale bandwidth between the booming tech hubs of Ashburn and Atlanta. This L-band deployment showcases Arelion’s continuous innovation to improve the quality and efficiency of its existing network to the cost benefit of its customers. Additional L-band deployments on high-traffic routes in North America are planned for later this year.

Infinera FlexILS is the industry’s most widely deployed flexible grid-compliant open optical line system, featuring C+L-band support and colorless-directionless-contentionless ROADM. This innovation in open networking allows carriers to eliminate vendor lock-in, manage supply chain variations, and easily manage native and alien wavelengths through granular control. The system enhances flexibility by supporting programmable configuration that optimizes operation based on performance, spectral efficiency, long span reach, and fiber conditions. Infinera FlexILS seamlessly doubles fiber capacity through L-band expansion from the adjacent C-band without impacting service or operational quality.

“We’re seeing significant demand for additional capacity from our customers along this high-traffic route as these tech hubs grow rapidly,” said Georgios Tologlou, Senior Network Architect, Arelion. “This innovation is a strong business case for us to optimize the cost per bit and minimize operational expenditures. Leveraging L-band, we can maximize the capacity per fiber pair to quickly serve our customers’ demands and supercharge our sales growth on one of the most popular routes in our North American network.”

“Our platforms are purpose-built to enable seamless upgrades to provide the greatest amount of investment protection and enable our customers to meet relentlessly growing bandwidth demand,” said Ron Johnson, Infinera’s General Manager, Optical Systems and Network Solutions Group. “Expanding the network to support L-band doubles the spectrum that can be used to transmit optical signals, hence enabling Arelion to double the amount of services they can provide per fiber while simultaneously achieving simplification of their network through automation and flexible operation.”

This new capability provides Arelion’s customers with enhanced scalability and fast delivery for its No.1 ranked internet backbone, AS1299, as well as the global carrier’s portfolio of leading IP and optical technology services, including high-speed Wavelengths, IP Transit, Cloud Connect, and Ethernet services for service providers, content providers, and enterprises.

About Arelion
Arelion solves global connectivity challenges for multinational enterprises whose businesses rely on digital infrastructure. On top of the world’s #1 ranked IP backbone and a unique ecosystem of cloud and network service providers, we provide an award-winning customer experience to customers in more than 125 countries worldwide. Our global Internet services connect more than 700 cloud, security and content providers with low latency. For further resilience, our private Cloud Connect service connects directly to Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, IBM Cloud and Oracle cloud across North America, Europe and Asia. Discover more at Arelion.com, and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.

About Infinera
Infinera is a global supplier of innovative open optical networking solutions and advanced optical semiconductors that enable carriers, cloud operators, governments, and enterprises to scale network bandwidth, accelerate service innovation, and automate network operations. Infinera solutions deliver industry-leading economics and performance in long-haul, submarine, data center interconnect, and metro transport applications. To learn more about Infinera, visit www.infinera.com, follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn, and subscribe for updates.

Infinera and the Infinera logo are registered trademarks of Infinera Corporation.

Contacts:

Arelion Media:
Martin Sjögren, Senior Manager PR and Analyst Relations
+46 (0)707 770 522
martin.sjogren@arelion.com

Arelion U.S. Media:
Jeannette Bitz, Engage PR
+1 510 295 4972
jbitz@engagepr.com

Infinera Media:
Anna Vue
Tel. +1 (916) 595-8157
avue@infinera.com

Infinera Investors:
Amitabh Passi, Head of Investor Relations
Tel. +1 (669) 295-1489
apassi@infinera.com

This press release contains forward-looking statements, including but not limited to the technical and performance capabilities and related financial and operational benefits of Infinera’s upgraded FlexILS flexible-grid line system to support the L-band. These statements are not guarantees of results and should not be considered as an indication of future activity or future performance. Actual results may vary materially from these expectations as a result of various risks and uncertainties. Information about these risks and uncertainties, and other risks and uncertainties that affect Infinera’s business, is contained in the risk factors section and other sections of Infinera’s Quarter Report on Form 10-Q for the Fiscal Quarter ended April 1, 2023 as filed with the SEC on May 4, 2023, as well as any subsequent reports filed with or furnished to the SEC. These reports are available on Infinera’s website at www.infinera.com and the SEC’s website at www.sec.gov. 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. Infinera assumes no obligation to, and does not currently intend to, update any such forward-looking statements.