Optical Tech

DixieNet Communications to build network in Mississippi with Metro-Optix equipment

March 4, 2002

March 4, 2002--DixieNet Communications, a Mississippi-based phone company providing rural customers throughout the state with low cost access to local and long distance telephone and data services, and Metro-Optix today announced a multi-million dollar agreement to deploy Metro-Optix's CityStream bandwidth managers in DixieNet's fiber-optic network.

DixieNet Communications, a Mississippi-based phone company providing rural customers throughout the state with low cost access to local and long distance telephone and data services, and Metro-Optix today announced a multi-million dollar agreement to deploy Metro-Optix's CityStream bandwidth managers in DixieNet's fiber-optic network.

Metro-Optix also will provide complete installation, training, and related services as part of the contract. Network deployment began in February 2002 in seven local exchanges, with another 10 local exchanges to be added by the end of 2002.

DixieNet Communications, operating 75 phone exchanges serving over 20,000 residential and business customers as of December 2001, provides dial-up and high-speed Internet and data access services, including DSL, frame relay, and point-to-point connections. Using CityStream, DixieNet Communications will look into adding services such as video conferencing and entertainment video-on-demand.

"The flexibility of next-generation equipment like CityStream is attractive to carriers in multi-protocol environments because swapping out line cards rather than boxes greatly improves the speed of provisioning new services," explains Sterling Perrin, senior analyst with IDC. "In addition to provisioning and other benefits, this class of equipment offers a smooth migration path from voice-dominated to more data-centric networks, which has tremendous appeal to carriers worldwide, who have invested billions of dollars in legacy SONET and SDH systems."

The CityStream system supports data, voice, and video traffic over optical networks, with a non-blocking, core switching fabric that scales from 100 Gbits/sec today to 400 Gbits/sec in the future on an 820-Gbits/sec backplane. Among CityStream's applications are ring aggregation, mesh topology, point-of-presence bandwidth management, high density STS and VT level grooming and transmultiplexing, service access multiplexing, DSLAM aggregation, ATM edge switching, and IP routing.

DixieNet Communications, a subsidiary of Dixie-Net Inc., is a locally owned and operated CLEC with its corporate offices located in Ripley, MS. For more information, visit the company's Web site at www.dixie-net.com.

Jointly headquartered in Santa Clara, CA, and Allen, TX, Metro-Optix is a privately held, optical networking equipment provider. For more information, visit www.metro-optix.com.