Broadband projects and LTE-ready mobile backhaul in Asia will drive loss-making Ciena into the black, predicts CEO Gary Smith.
Fresh off of completing its first full financial quarter since integrating Nortel’s Metro Ethernet Networks (MEN) business into its portfolio in March, Ciena is looking to expand its international business, which currently accounts for just over 40% of its revenue, Smith told telecomasia.net in an interview Thursday.
Smith said Asia and Latin America were the two hottest growth segments for Ciena – now positioned as an “exclusive optical-Ethernet convergence” play – as more markets look to beef up their overall broadband infrastructure.
“Look at the bandwidth growth going on in terms of mobile backhaul as operators shift to LTE, and the focus on broadband growth in markets like Australia and New Zealand,” Smith said.
“That has a knock-on effect with the kind of infrastructure platforms that we’re interested in, so really, we see the convergence of optical and Ethernet as the strongest growth area in Asia,” he said.
Ciena isn’t the only vendor chasing that space, of course – so are most of its infrastructure rivals. Smith says one key to winning that segment will be network intelligence.