Analyst: Ciena Corp. To See Small Gain From New Pact WIth Verizon Communications Inc.

Ciena Corp.'s

results will see a slight gain from its recently announced supply contract with Verizon Communications Inc.

, an analyst said Wednesday. JP Morgan's Rod Hall called the deal "incrementally positive" for Ciena and neutral for Cisco Systems Inc.

, which was also named a supplier for the Verizon project unveiled Tuesday. Financial terms weren't disclosed. Hall said early reports suggested that Cisco had won the lion's share of the deal. But Lee Hicks, vice president of Verizon network planning said supplier volumes will be determined by ongoing testing, support and performance. Hicks' statement on volumes "seems aimed at dispelling the notion" that Cisco got the better part of the contract, Hall said. The project, called Metro 100G, will update Verizon's optical network by replacing older equipment with packet-based optical transport capacity. Hicks expects the new system will go live in 2016, with testing and construction in 2015. "Ciena and Cisco met not only our technology requirements but the aggressive timeline to deploy" the project, Verizon's Hicks said. Ciena changed hands recently at $20.67, up $0.14 cents; Cisco was at $27.98, off $0.02 cents.