Moby Taps Ciena to Supercharge Residential Broadband in Calgary

Moby, an independent telecom provider and division of Western Fibre Communications Corp., is utilizing a broadband solution from Ciena to provide residential connectivity services to subscribers in Calgary, the largest city in Alberta, Canada.

While most independent ISPs simply resell services from ‘Big Telecom’ incumbents, Moby designs, builds, and operates its own dedicated fiber optic infrastructure to better serve residential and business customers. And it’s on a mission to redefine connectivity in the province.

“We saw that people didn’t have a lot of choice when it came to telecom services, so we set out to offer a real alternative—a local, independent provider with a quality, super-fast all-fiber network and an intense focus on the customer,” said Nick Brewer, Founder and Chief Technology Officer, Moby.

Through its residential arm, Moby provides internet, TV, and phone services to high-density multi-family apartment and condo buildings—typically known as multi-dwelling units, or “MDUs.” The network topology for MDUs is akin to a campus network: A group of buildings operating within a defined geographic area over a shared network to provide internet access to users.

Because multiple residents in an MDU simultaneously use the network for entertainment, socialization, and work, it must be capable of handling nonstop streaming, intense gaming, constant video conferencing, large file transfers, and other bandwidth-intensive activities. So to ensure that it is providing its customers with the best digital experience possible, Moby continually seeks out new, innovative technologies. This led the ISP to XGS-PON (10 gigabit symmetrical passive optical network), which makes possible downstream and upstream speeds of up to 10Gb/s—around four times that of older variants like GPON, which maxes out at 2.5Gb/s downstream.

Moby considered several vendors for its broadband network and ultimately chose Ciena. Ciena’s solution included the 3924 Platform, XGS-PON uOLTs (micro optical line terminals), and 3801 ONUs (optical network units).

“Ciena’s uOLT pluggables are a game changer. They've allowed us to economically scale with demand while significantly decreasing our space and power consumption. This is particularly crucial for space-constrained MDU applications and dovetails perfectly with our sustainability aspirations,” said Brewer.

“Moby continually strives to delight its customers, and Ciena’s broadband solution gives us an edge in providing superior connectivity and an unmatched user experience.”

Unlike traditional large, chassis-based approaches that are hindered by limited flexibility and scalability, Ciena’s uOLT, a small pluggable device, can transform any port on the 3924 into an OLT, one port at a time. This makes it ideally suited for residential broadband applications, allowing Moby to adapt and evolve with user, bandwidth, and performance demands in a highly cost-effective manner. Additionally, the 3924’s high-capacity yet compact 1RU design enables Moby to reduce footprint and energy requirements, resulting in a more environmentally friendly solution.