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

February 19, 2024

LITTLE ROCK, Ark.–(BUSINESS WIRE)– Windstream Wholesale, an optical technology leader in advanced network solutions, today announced a significant milestone in the construction of its new dark fiber route. The “Beach Route” stretches 651 route miles across a unique path down the East Coast of the United States and consists of 864-count buried fiber. The northern section, covering 459 miles from Raleigh, North Carolina, to Savannah, Georgia, is now complete, equipped, and ready for immediate service.

The Beach Route’s northern section unlocks expansive dark fiber connectivity options across major East Coast cities including from Raleigh, North Carolina, to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, and from Myrtle Beach to Savannah, Georgia. Conveniently connecting to the new DC BLOX cable landing station in Myrtle Beach, businesses now have access to the Firmina, Nuveum, and Anjana sub-sea cables.

Offering diverse connectivity options, the Beach Route grants access to over 12 data centers and 14 government and military locations. Extensive broadband expansion opportunities include partnerships with municipalities, utilities, and cooperatives. Partnering with adjacent providers extends connectivity to Atlanta, Miami, and Charlotte, enhancing dark fiber network expansion opportunities. Leveraging the Windstream Wholesale industry-leading iconnect customer portal ensures reliable and efficient network tracking with dark fiber monitoring and proactive ticketing, optimizing performance and minimizing downtime.

Joe Scattareggia, Windstream Wholesale president, captures the essence of this new build: “We’re not just expanding infrastructure; we’re redefining connectivity standards and empowering our customers on a monumental scale.”

The team is making exceptional progress on the southern portion and final segment of the Beach Route, adding 192 route miles of new conduit extending from Savannah into the Jacksonville Beach Network Access Point. Scheduled for service by the second quarter of 2024, this segment will provide access to two key sub-sea cables, AMX-1 and PCCS.

Look for forthcoming announcements from Windstream as the company lights these segments, seamlessly integrating this diverse route into its ICON network for 100G and 400G wave services scheduled for deployment in the second quarter of 2024.

Recognized by Capacity Media as the 2023 Best North American Carrier, 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-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

January 16, 2024

LITTLE ROCK, Ark.–(BUSINESS WIRE)– Windstream Wholesale (Windstream), an optical technology leader in fast and flexible advanced solutions, and Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO), the worldwide technology leader of secure connections, today announced the industry’s first successful transmission of a 1 terabit per second (Tbps) wavelength over a 1,100-kilometer link across multiple routes on Windstream’s Intelligent Converged Optical Network (ICON).

This transport achievement was enabled by the Cisco NCS 1014 C-Band 2.4T WDM Transponder Line Card with Acacia’s Coherent Interconnect Module (CIM) 8, the industry’s first 1.2Tbps faceplate pluggable coherent solution. Powered by Jannu, Acacia’s 8th-generation digital signal processor (DSP) ASIC, the CIM 8 is designed to deliver industry-leading performance with single carrier 1.2Tbps operation. This transmission success proves the superior performance of CIM 8, which was demonstrated over a third-party line system (150Ghz Channel).

The successful trial deployments achieved the following key wavelength transmissions across Windstream ICON routes:

  • Successful roundtrip transport of 1Tbps over 1,100 km from Miami to Jacksonville, Florida
  • Successful transport of 800G over 1,387 km of mixed fiber from Miami through Tallahassee, Florida, to Atlanta, Georgia
  • Successful roundtrip transport of 600G over 2,774 km from Miami, Florida, to Atlanta, Georgia

“This tremendous achievement further proves our commitment to technology leadership and networking expertise,” said John Nishimoto, Windstream Wholesale senior vice president of products, marketing, and strategy. “We developed ICON to provide multi-vendor flexibility and seamlessly integrate the newest optimized technology into our disaggregated network. Achievements like this reinforce our 800G wave strategy and offer improved design and network planning options among our 100G and 400G solutions.”

The trial results emphasize that disaggregated networking can be implemented successfully on production networks and demonstrate that interoperability between a vendor’s transponder and a third-party line system is achievable. This accomplishment is an industry-first and is another of many successful milestones resulting from the long-term collaboration between Windstream Wholesale, Cisco, and Acacia.

  • March 2023 – Successfully deployed a 1Tbps wave over 541 km between Dallas and Tulsa in a live network trial across Windstream’s ICON. The circuit was looped to establish an 800G route over a live network measuring 1,082 km, setting a leading benchmark using digital coherent optics technology.
  • April 2022 – Achieved successful establishment of 400G links in a production environment over a 1,027 km route, pioneering the interoperability of QSFP-DD form factor ZR+ pluggable modules from Cisco and II-VI Incorporated, now Coherent Corp. (NYSE: COHR).
  • February 2021 – Established a 400G ZR+ live network record, successfully deploying a 400G per second single-wavelength transmission over 1,027 km between Phoenix and Los Angeles using ZR+ digital coherent optics technology.

“Collaborating with industry leaders like Windstream, Cisco continues to demonstrate results leveraging our coherent technology innovation from Acacia and the Cisco NCS 1014 platform,” said Bill Gartner, senior vice president of Optical Systems and Optics, Cisco. “This 1Tbps over 1,100km exemplifies how Cisco is providing our customers with disaggregated networking solutions to deliver the capacity and speed for the future of networking.”

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-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

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