Ciena Near Big Verizon Win

Verizon (VZ Quote) is making a shopping list for optical gear, and Ciena (CIEN Quote) might just have the goods.

The New York phone giant will soon be soliciting bids from suppliers for "optical cross connects," says one source familiar with the company. And though outfits such as Alcatel-Lucent (ALU Quote) and Tellabs (TLAB Quote) will likely be considered, Ciena is looking like an early favorite with its popular CoreDirector optical switch, the source says.

"Verizon has basically told Ciena what it wants, and Ciena has been putting a lot of development into what I would call a CoreDirector 2," said the source.

The so-called request for proposal, or RFP, from Verizon is expected go out this spring. Contract decisions could be made in December, the source speculates. ...