Bluebird Fiber Signs Multi-Year Contract to Upgrade Optical Network in the U.S. Midwest

en.Wedoany.com Reported - French network equipment vendor Ekinops has signed a multi-year contract with U.S.-based Bluebird Fiber to upgrade and expand its optical network in the U.S. Midwest. Bluebird Fiber will adopt Ekinops' DWDM optical networking equipment and next-generation coherent transmission technology to increase backbone network capacity and deliver 100G to 400G high-speed wavelength services over its existing network.

The contract scope includes Ekinops optical transport systems and enterprise network solutions, with the equipment to be deployed in Bluebird Fiber's core backbone and high-capacity wavelength network. Bluebird Fiber's existing network covers 12 states in the U.S. Midwest, with more than 36,000 miles of fiber route miles, operates over 450 network access points, and can reach more than 750,000 buildings that are connected or near-connected.

This upgrade will focus on deploying Ekinops' DWDM Optical Networking solution and coherent optical transmission technology to increase per-wavelength capacity on the existing fiber infrastructure. The contract also covers multi-year network expansion, with Ekinops serving as Bluebird Fiber's optical network technology partner to continuously provide related equipment and network solutions.

Bluebird Fiber plans to use the upgraded network to provide high-capacity, low-latency dedicated wavelength services to data centers, hyperscale cloud providers, wholesale carriers, and enterprise customers. Ekinops' official announcement did not disclose the contract value, specific equipment quantities, initial deployment locations, or the full implementation timeline.

Ekinops' current optical transport products cover metro, regional, long-haul, and data center interconnect scenarios, and its coherent transmission platform supports transmission capabilities of up to 600Gbps. The commercial service rates explicitly adopted under this Bluebird Fiber contract are 100G–400G.