microWDM optical networking platform provides cost effective capacity over FiberTower’s fiber network for burgeoning wireless backhaul market
Ottawa, Canada—Tuesday, August 28, 2007 // BTI Photonic Systems Inc., a global supplier of microWDM networking solutions for the delivery of gigabit services, today announced that FiberTower Corporation (NASDAQ: FTWR) has selected its optical networking platform, Netstender, to expand its wireless backhaul network capacity for next generation wireless services. FiberTower, a leading alternative provider of wireless backhaul for wireless carriers, selected BTI’s platform to provide the capacity to deliver high capacity backhaul over the FiberTower hybrid microwave/fiber network.
“As our carrier customers continue to deploy higher data rate applications, we aim to be ahead of the curve by providing leading high capacity offerings over our own microwave and fiber networks,” said Michael Finlayson, Senior Vice President of Technology at FiberTower. “Working together with BTI enables us to significantly extend our fiber capacity and offer new higher data rate backhaul services to our end customers – the wireless carriers – with an easy to manage, carrier grade platform that can scale as our business grows.”
Beginning in Dallas, FiberTower is leveraging BTI’s compact 2U platform – the Netstender 2060, with its integrated DWDM, Wavelength Conversion and Amplification capabilities to deliver capacity rapidly on wavelengths. Scaleable up to 320Gbps on a single fiber and integrated with FiberTower’s management systems the Netstender provides the ability to quickly scale out its network capacity as new demand arises. The added bandwidth will enhance FiberTower’s services to wireless carriers as new high bandwidth applications are offered to consumer and business customers.
“FiberTower brings an unbeatable value proposition to the wireless backhaul market with their nationwide microwave spectrum coverage, wireless tower access and metro fiber,” said Glenn Thurston, Vice President Marketing, BTI Photonic Systems. “With legacy backhaul circuits, backhaul costs are out of control, eating up 20%-25% of wireless carrier operating budgets. FiberTower solves this problem by delivering massive backhaul capacity at a reasonable cost to support all the new bandwidth hungry applications.”
BTI’s microWDM optical networking technology enables service providers to build an easy-to-manage, scalable, protocol-independent converged network with much lower transport costs than traditional systems, while maximizing the use of fiber assets. It has the ability to deliver from 1 to 320 Gbps across a single fiber for regional and metro networks with low operating costs and rapid time to service.
FiberTower is a backhaul and access services provider focused primarily on the wireless carrier market. With its extensive spectrum footprint in 24 GHz and 39 GHz bands, carrier-class microwave and fiber networks in 12 major US markets, customer commitments from six of the leading cellular carriers, and partnerships with the largest tower operators in the U.S, FiberTower is considered to be the leading alternative carrier for wireless backhaul. FiberTower also provides backhaul and access service to government and enterprise markets. For more information, please visit their website at www.fibertower.com.
BTI Photonic Systems helps service providers respond rapidly and cost-effectively to the skyrocketing demand for bandwidth in today’s gigabit world. Our Netstender™ platform—the industry’s first microWDM system with an open photonic-layer architecture—extends high-bandwidth transport services to the metro network’s edge. By consolidating key transport capabilities (DWDM/CWDM, optical multiplexing, amplification, dispersion compensation and wavelength translation) within a single network element, Netstender delivers industry-leading capital and operational savings while future-proofing networking capabilities. Addressing the needs for fiber relief and reach extension—and enabling 10G, 1G, and metro Ethernet service overlays—Netstender allows carriers to deliver gigabit services economically while dramatically increasing their overall market footprint. For more information, visit www.btiphotonics.com
For more information:
Corporate
Glenn Thurston,
BTI Photonic Systems
gthurston@btiphotonics.com
613-248-9154
Media
Cerys Goodall
High Road Communications
cgoodall@highroad.com
613-236-0909 (309)
