Back to top

Image: Bigstock

Ciena's (CIEN) Blue Planet Powers Virgin Media's Fiber Service

Read MoreHide Full Article

Ciena Corporation’s (CIEN - Free Report) sub-division, Blue Planet, recently announced its collaboration with Virgin Media Ireland to facilitate a three-year transition toward a complete fiber network and a shift from traditional cable services to fully automated and high-speed fiber broadband services.

Virgin Media will leverage Blue Planet’s intelligent automation platform for network and service automation to enhance the user experience and provide ultra-fast broadband connectivity to its residential and business customers.

Blue Planet platform will also help Virgin Media to modernize its Operational Support Systems stack and streamline the order-to-service process for reliable fiber broadband services. The deployment of the Blue Planet platform, facilitated by Prodapt, a telco-focused implementation partner, allows Virgin Media to rapidly introduce 2GB Full Fiber Broadband to homes and businesses across Ireland while providing a consolidated view of the network's status and enhancing service agility through Blue Planet Orchestration.

Ciena is a leading provider of optical networking equipment, software and services. The increasing cloud adoption, rising demand for higher capacity and bandwidth and the proliferation of edge applications drive demand for Ciena’s diversified product portfolio.

In September, the company announced that its Waveserver 5 compact interconnect platform, powered by WaveLogic 5 Nano (WL5n) 400ZR coherent pluggable, is being leveraged by a Service (IaaS) provider in Latin America — EdgeUno.

EdgeUno will be utilizing Ciena’s platform to upgrade its data center interconnect network, which will significantly benefit EdgeUno's customers in Brazil and Mexico by providing them with a more dependable and scalable network.

Prior to that, the company announced that Colt Technology Services was leveraging its coherent technology to offer high-capacity services across long distances spanning more than 500 kms. The upgrade allows Colt to improve its services on the Colt IQ Network to better respond to the growing demand for high-bandwidth, on-demand connectivity in Japan.

CIEN currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). Shares of the company have gained 17.8% compared with the sub-industry’s growth of 19.8% in the past year.

Zacks Investment Research
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research

Stocks to Consider

Some better-ranked stocks in the broader technology space are Asure Software (ASUR - Free Report) , Aspen Technology (AZPN - Free Report) and Badger Meter (BMI - Free Report) . Asure Software presently sports a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), whereas Badger Meter and Aspen Technology currently carry a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Asure Software’s 2023 earnings per share (EPS) has increased 35% in the past 60 days to 54 cents.

Asure Software’s earnings beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate in all the last four quarters, the average being 376.4%. Shares of ASUR have surged 69% in the past year.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Aspen Technology’s fiscal 2024 EPS has increased 5.8% in the past 60 days to $6.58.

Aspen Technology’s long-term earnings growth rate is 17.1%. Shares of AZPN have declined 12.1% in the past year.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Badger Meter’s 2023 EPS has increased 6.3% in the past 60 days to $2.86.

Badger Meter’s earnings beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate in all the last four quarters, the average being 6.7%. Shares of BMI have surged 69.7% in the past year.

Published in