Infinera Corp. (Nasdaq: INFN - message board) has secured some business from 360networks Inc. by enabling new potential revenue streams through bandwidth virtualization.
The equipment vendor, which makes an integrated optical platform based on photonic integrated circuits (PICs), will be deployed by 360 for a regional network in the Western United States.
Infinera believes its ability to provide bandwidth virtualization was a significant part of winning the 360networks account.
"By deploying Infinera, 360 networks can put services anywhere without regard to the wavelength infrastructure, and easily add and drop traffic to and from the network," says Rick Dodd, Infinera's VP of product marketing.
Due tothe digital nature of its system, Infinera has had the ability to decouple services from wavelengths for some time. But in the past, the company had marketed this ability as a way to save operating expense by enabling operators to provision services without custom tuning wavelengths.
But now,Infinera is targeting bandwidth virtualization as a way to add revenue streams through new and less expensive service provisioning.
As a result of Infinera's ability to decouple services from wavelengths, Dodd says 360networks is extending services to five markets that were previously underserved.
"Where services are tied to wavelengths, it's incredibly expensive to justify serving those cities," he says.
This opens up a potential 2.5 million new termination points through which the operator can offer VOIP, private line, dedicated Internet access, and wavelength services.
Infinera isn't disclosing the size of the contract, but it does hope to extend its reach in 360's network, based on the performance of the equipment deployed.
The contract marks another in a series of wins for Infinera, which has seen takeup for its DTN platform increase dramatically over the past year. Recent contract awards include: North China Grid Company (NCGC) Ltd., Cox Communications Inc. , and XO Communications Inc. (OTC: XOCM - message board).