Ciena is using its acquisition of Nortel's Metro Ethernet division to set up shops in Australia and New Zealand.

The US-based vendor, which makes optical switching and carrier Ethernet kit, said today its presence would consist of former Nortel staff.

It is currently negotiating real estate leases to relocate from Nortel offices to Ciena facilities. Senior vice president of global field operations Mike Aquino refused to say how many workers Ciena had in A/NZ as a result of the acquisition, and also declined to reveal the company's local revenues.

"We're still sizing up this market place," said Mr Aquino, who was in town to crank up the firm's marketing efforts and meet customers.

"I think from now until the end of the year we'll be assessing what's in the market place and making selective hires for specific functions."

Aquino also said that the company's plans in Australia would not be affected if the national broadband network was canned by the Coalition after the next election.

"I see a tremendous demand for bandwidth driven by new apps," he said.

"Whoever satisfies that demand, whether from the public or private sector, I see demand."

While Ciena denied there were two growth schemes for the local operations -- one with and one without the NBN - the company admitted there were plenty of options within the business plan.

"If the NBN doesn't get built I don't see that impacting on our business. I think we'll continue to see [bandwidth] growth in one way or another,"Mr Aquino said.