MARCH 18, 2024

LITTLE ROCK, Ark.–(BUSINESS WIRE)– Windstream Wholesale, an optical technology leader in advanced network solutions, today announced the completion of two pivotal route enhancement projects using FLEX DWDM (FLEX) technology, bolstering connectivity across Virginia. These enhancements are part of a broader initiative to upgrade capacity across Windstream’s Nationwide Intelligent Converged Optical Network (ICON) to provide top-tier service to its customers.

The FLEX upgrade extends across Windstream’s ICON network from Ashburn through Richmond, Virginia, and into the Virginia Beach cable landing station (CLS). Equipped with Ciena’s 6500 Reconfigurable Line System (RLS), FLEX technology has been integrated across the extended route, offering customers enhanced reliability, flexibility, and scalability to meet their growing connectivity needs. The route segment from Ashburn to Richmond serves as a vital connection between key data centers while the extension from Richmond to the Virginia Beach subsea CLS opens new avenues for international connectivity.

Windstream Wholesale’s FLEX/ICON upgrades and expansions enable 400G wave service, Managed Spectrum service, and greater visibility into network health and performance with technologies like inline optical time-domain reflectometer (OTDR) engineered into the route. Inline OTDR dramatically reduces mean time to repair (MTTR) in the event of a network interference or fiber cut, providing the ability to locate the interference without physically deploying resources.FLEX also provides cost benefits, enabling the direct connection of key data centers to core long-haul network nodes and eliminating the need to bookend equipment to jump between long-haul and regional networks.

“We are proud to announce the completion of these two crucial route initiatives,” said John Nishimoto, Windstream Wholesale senior vice president of product, marketing, and strategy. “These enhancements represent our steadfast commitment to technology leadership and exceeding customer expectations as we continue to drive innovation to meet today’s connectivity demands.”

Windstream Wholesale understands the critical role connectivity plays in today’s digital landscape. By investing in infrastructure expansion and leveraging state-of-the-art technologies like FLEX, the company remains at the forefront of delivering reliable, high-performance network solutions.

“As technology continues to evolve, so do the demands placed on networks,” added Joe Scattareggia, Windstream Wholesale president. “With these new route initiatives, we are not only meeting but exceeding the connectivity expectations of our customers, ensuring they remain ahead of the curve.”

Windstream’s Intelligent Converged Optical Network (ICON) provides open and disaggregated networking infrastructure, enabling wholesale and enterprise technology customers to select unique custom routes, maintain operational insights with Windstream’s Network Intelligence functions, and place their networks closer to the edge to better serve end-users.

To view the Windstream Wholesale network, visit https://www.windstreamwholesale.com/network-map/

About Windstream
Windstream Wholesale is an innovative optical technology leader that delivers fast, flexible and customized wavelength and dark fiber solutions to carriers, content providers and hyperscalers in the U.S. and Canada. Windstream Wholesale is one of three brands managed by Windstream. The company’s quality-first approach connects customers to new opportunities and possibilities by delivering a full suite of advanced communications services. Windstream also offers fiber-based broadband to residential and small business customers in 18 states as well as managed cloud communications and security services to mid-to-large enterprises and government entities across the U.S. Windstream is a privately held company headquartered in Little Rock, Ark. Additional information about Windstream Wholesale is available at windstreamwholesale.com or windstream.com. Follow us on X (Twitter) @Windstream and LinkedIn at @Windstream.

Category: Wholesale

Windstream Contact
Scott Morris, 501-748-5342
[email protected]

Source: Windstream Holdings

January 8, 2024

LITTLE ROCK, Ark.–(BUSINESS WIRE)– Windstream Wholesale, a leading provider of advanced optical technology solutions, has announced a game-changing network intelligence tool within its iconnect customer portal empowering users to design their own wavelength routes.

Integrated into the Windstream Wholesale’s iconnect customer portal, the Route Creator tool elevates customer control, granting a clear landscape of accessible wave routes on the Windstream Intelligent Converged Optical Network (ICON). Customers can easily evaluate up to five wavelength route options, enhancing their network management capabilities.

Customers can view information on mileage, latency, and number of network hops aligned to each route option. Additionally, the route tool enables the user to customize the route options by selectively adding route diversity as necessary. The self-service tool also seamlessly integrates into the iconnect customer portal turning the desired design into a quote, making the process faster and more efficient than ever before.

One of the most noteworthy and valuable features for customers is the capability to export available route options to KMZ files. This empowers network planners to download their route designs for operational review and business coordination. The Route Creator will be available to Windstream Wholesale customers at the end of January.

“Windstream Wholesale is dedicated to shaping the future of technology and network intelligence,” said Joe Scattareggia, president of Windstream Wholesale. “Equally important is our commitment to eliminating barriers and service obstacles for our customers. We ensure complete network visibility and expedite connections based on our customers’ needs.”

Windstream Wholesale delivers high-capacity optical services over its Intelligent Converged Optical Network (ICON), which provides open and disaggregated networking infrastructure, enabling wholesale and enterprise technology customers to select unique custom routes, maintain operational insights with Windstream’s Network Intelligence functions, and place their networks closer to the edge to better serve end-users.

To view the Windstream Wholesale network, visit https://www.windstreamwholesale.com/network-expansion/.

About Windstream

Windstream Holdings is a privately held communications and software company. Windstream Wholesale is an innovative optical technology leader that creates deep partnerships with carriers, content and media providers, federal government agencies, and Fortune 100 companies to deliver fast and flexible, customized wave and transport solutions. Additional information is available at windstream.com or windstreamwholesale.com. Follow us on Twitter at @Windstream.

Category: Wholesale

Windstream Wholesale
Scott Morris, 501-748-5342
[email protected]

Source: Windstream Holdings

We’ve achieved a major construction milestone in the progress of our new CanAm2 route!

Fiber placement is complete on the 46-mile Canadian section with splicing and testing in progress. In addition, more than 50 miles are placed along the Albany, New York to New York City stretch with construction continuing.

Windstream Wholesale’s CanAm2 is a 440-mile-long route comprised of all-new 432-count fiber. It features a unique cross-border design that connects Montreal, Canada, and New York City, providing seamless network connectivity to Boston through Albany, New York. Several major hyperscalers have already purchased CanAm2 to gain a competitive advantage.

Learn More about CanAm2 and our invaluable construction partners in our recent press release.

We’ve embarked on a series of construction projects to overbuild select routes and build new network routes with high-count fibers. Explore more in our interactive network map and let us know where we should build next!

Maintaining our position as a technology leader, we’re excited to introduce additional map-based network intelligence enhancements within the Windstream Wholesale iconnect customer portal.

Fiber route map views and KMZ’s on-demand, real-time fiber outage visibility with location data, and proactive monitoring and ticketing for Dark Fiber and Managed Spectrum are the latest capabilities of an ongoing series of portal advancements. iconnect offers superior network performance data and transparency, giving customers an essential tool to confidently manage their operations.

“As the industry leader, we are excited about this elevated insight and unmatched transparency truly setting us apart in the market.” Joe Scattareggia, chief revenue officer for Windstream Wholesale.

Learn More in our Press Release and contact our team for an iconnect demo! See how our customer portal gives you access to a variety of data, from real-time updates on circuits to historical insights and performance trends.

The results are in… and Windstream Wholesale is proud to be awarded the 2023 Best North American Carrier! This esteemed industry recognition was revealed by Capacity Media during the Global Carrier Awards in London, England. We are grateful to be recognized as the “best” by our industry peers from around the world – the ultimate compliment to the business and culture we have created.

We asked Joe Scattareggia, CRO, to reflect on his evening in London and define the Top 3 Things winning the award means to him and the Windstream Wholesale team:

  • Ultimate Recognition for the entire WW team for their Hard Work and Dedication: Winning the award is the ultimate recognition for the collective efforts of the team, encompassing not only our immediate colleagues but also our extended Windstream Wholesale team. It signifies the unwavering dedication and hard work put forth to provide an exceptional customer experience.
  • Gratification from Industry Peers, Including Competitors: It’s incredibly gratifying for our team to be acknowledged by industry peers, even some of our competitors, as the best.
  • Responsibility and Celebration of Team Culture: Winning an award comes with the responsibility to celebrate. It provides a unique opportunity to share the story of our team’s hard work and dedication. Through this celebration, we can showcase the amazing culture that has allowed us to reach this milestone and reflect on the values that drive our success.

In the coming year, we look forward to celebrating, not just as a team, but with our customers and partners. Stay tuned for exciting updates – we might just surprise you by stopping in your neck of the woods!

November 6, 2023

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. & CHANDLER, Ariz.–(BUSINESS WIRE)– Windstream Wholesale, an optical technology leader delivering fast and flexible advanced solutions, and VIAVI Solutions (NASDAQ: VIAV), a global provider of network testing, monitoring, and assurance solutions, today announced the integration of VIAVI Remote Fiber Test System (RFTS) into Windstream’s Intelligent Converged Optical Network (ICON).  This tool further advances network intelligence functionality for Dark Fiber and Wavelength monitoring. Customers will be able to leverage this tool in the first quarter of 2024.  

VIAVI RFTS includes FTH-9000 adaptive fiber test heads and ONMSi  software. This centralized system combines strategically placed test heads in key network locations to constantly sweep the fiber with an OTDR test signal to identify and locate fiber faults and degradations. Incorporating this solution directly into Windstream’s Dark Fiber and ICON network enables early detection of fiber breaks, elimination of reactive truck rolls, faster time to repair, and increased transparency of and visibility into a customer’s network health and performance. The VIAVI outage and GIS data will be integrated from the ONMSi platform into Windstream Wholesale’s operational and portal software applications.

Early Detection of Fiber Breaks for Dark Fiber and Wavelengths

  • Fiber routes are continuously and proactively monitored to detect cable damage (intrusions, bends, kinks, etc.).
  • Immediate notification of cuts, outages, and degraded service is sent to Windstream Wholesale network operations on behalf of the customer.
  • Allows Windstream to expand its OTDR capabilities on network routes where in-line OTDR is not available.

Faster Time to Repair

  • Automation of fiber outage identification reduces coordination times needed with manual OTDR testing processes.
  • Pinpointed outage data includes GPS location and impacted circuit information immediately identifying where the outage location is.
  • Reduced Time to Repair (TTR) due to immediate notifications sent to Windstream Wholesale.

Visibility Expanded for Dark Fiber Customers in the iconnect Portal

  • Dark Fiber customers gain real-time outage location information on a map like Wavelength services.
  • Customers gain map views of network health in Windstream Wholesale’s iconnect portal.
  • Available on Windstream Wholesale’s new high-count long-haul dark fiber builds including Tulsa to Little Rock to Memphis (T-Rock Express), Raleigh to Myrtle Beach to Jacksonville (Beach Route), and Montreal to Albany to New York City (CanAm2).

“VIAVI is proud to be a long-term partner to Windstream Wholesale, whose deployment and maintenance teams have relied on our test and assurance solutions to deliver high-quality fiber networks to their customers,” said Luiz Cesar Oliveira, vice president, Americas, VIAVI. “Service providers are increasing efficiency through enhanced visibility and intelligence as well as simplified troubleshooting processes. VIAVI RFTS is delivering capabilities trusted by carriers globally to the Windstream ICON network.”

“With fiber networks serving as the foundational architecture of our modern world, our society is put on hold when fiber cables break. We are pleased with the partnership that we have with VIAVI and how it enables us to integrate a proactive functionality of OTDR technology into our network – significantly reducing any network impact on our customers,” said Joe Scattareggia, Windstream Wholesale chief revenue officer. “We’re able to detect and respond to outages early and in real-time, communicate to our customers concurrently, and repair those outages faster than anyone else.”

Windstream’s ICON provides open and disaggregated networking infrastructure, enabling wholesale and enterprise technology customers to select unique custom routes, maintain operational insights with Windstream’s Network Intelligence functions, and place their networks closer to the edge to better serve end-users.

To view the Windstream Wholesale network, visit https://www.windstreamwholesale.com/network-expansion/.

About Windstream

Windstream Holdings is a privately held communications and software company. Windstream Wholesale is an innovative optical technology leader that creates deep partnerships with carriers, content and media providers, federal government agencies and Fortune 100 companies to deliver fast and flexible, customized wave and transport solutions. Additional information is available at windstream.com or windstreamwholesale.com. Follow us on X, formerly Twitter, at @Windstream.

Category: Wholesale

Windstream Wholesale Contact:
Scott Morris, 501-748-5342
[email protected]

About VIAVI

VIAVI (NASDAQ: VIAV) is a global provider of network test, monitoring and assurance solutions for telecommunications, cloud, enterprises, first responders, military, aerospace and railway. VIAVI is also a leader in light management technologies for 3D sensing, anti-counterfeiting, consumer electronics, industrial, automotive, government and aerospace applications. In 2023, we celebrate over 100 years of Network Transformation and Optical Innovation. Learn more about VIAVI at www.viavisolutions.com. Follow us on VIAVI Perspectives, LinkedIn and YouTube.

VIAVI Solutions Contact:
Amit Malhotra, 202-341-8624
[email protected]

October 09, 2023

LITTLE ROCK, Ark.–(BUSINESS WIRE)– Windstream Wholesale, a leading provider of advanced optical solutions, today announced additional map-based network intelligence enhancements to its iconnect customer portal.

iconnect is Windstream Wholesale’s premier customer portal providing access to multi-layer network health data and self-service tools. These latest capabilities are part of an ongoing series of portal advancements offering superior network performance and transparency, giving customers an essential tool that reveals more about their network and enables them to confidently manage their operations.

Real-time fiber outage visibility with location data

Windstream Wholesale’s network intelligence quickly pinpoints the precise location of a fiber outage on the customer’s map to gain near real-time awareness and operational control over network issues. The unmatched speed of isolation and resolution ensures minimal downtime for the customer.

Fiber route map views and KMZs on-demand

Dark Fiber and Managed Spectrum customers can also now view their fiber route and download network KMZs on demand, enabling more efficiency and transparency to their operations.

Proactive monitoring and ticketing for Dark Fiber and Managed Spectrum

This expanded feature, previously only available for Wave services, provides detection of network issues, maintaining the company’s commitment to keeping customers informed about any potential outages and enabling faster reaction and repair to maintain business continuity.

Customers can also access a range of data through the iconnect portal, from real-time updates on their circuits to historical insights to identify performance and trends.

“We’re committed to delivering leading technology and products to our customers and staying ahead of the curve,” said Joe Scattareggia, chief revenue officer for Windstream Wholesale. “As the industry leader, we are excited about this elevated insight and unmatched transparency truly setting us apart in the market.”

Windstream Wholesale delivers high-capacity optical services over its Intelligent Converged Optical Network (ICON), which provides open and disaggregated networking infrastructure, enabling wholesale and enterprise technology customers to select unique custom routes, maintain operational insights with Windstream’s Network Intelligence functions, and place their networks closer to the edge to better serve end-users.

To view the Windstream Wholesale network, visit https://www.windstreamwholesale.com/network-expansion/.

About Windstream

Windstream Holdings is a privately held communications and software company. Windstream Wholesale is an innovative optical technology leader that creates deep partnerships with carriers, content and media providers, federal government agencies, and Fortune 100 companies to deliver fast and flexible, customized wave and transport solutions. Additional information is available at windstream.com or windstreamwholesale.com. Follow us on Twitter at @Windstream.

Category: Wholesale

Windstream Wholesale Contact:
Scott Morris
501-748-5342
[email protected]

Source: Windstream Holdings