FREMONT, CA--(Marketwired - Jun 11, 2015) - Ikanos Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ: IKAN), a leading provider of advanced broadband semiconductor and software products for the connected home and small business, and Mako Networks, a network management company providing services via a range of managed appliances that connect businesses to the Internet and protect them from security threats, today announced that Sprint has begun the deployment of the 6500-M/LTE on its network, servicing a wide range of businesses including opportunities in banking, petroleum, restaurants and general retail. Sprint and Mako have already secured contracts with several customers in this sector, including a large multi-national petroleum retailer expected to begin deployment later this year. The 6500-M/LTE is certified by the Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council as providing the highest level of network security for payments and other financial transactions. The combination of Mako's unique PCI DSS-certified technology powered by Ikanos' high-performance Fusiv® gateway processor, as well as Sprint's robust, high-availability LTE network, creates a compelling and differentiated service on the Sprint network.

"Sprint's and Mako Networks' strong collaboration has resulted in deployments in many locations over the past two years," said Mohamad Nasser, Sprint's senior director, M2M Products, Platforms and Marketing. "With Mako's new Ikanos-based LTE gateway appliance, we're able to offer unparalleled security and reliability for commercial transactions for our customers. This is an important step and key to our mission to deliver technology that provides the highest performance, availability, scalability and security end-to-end across our network." 

Incorporating redundant network interfaces, the 6500-M/LTE from Mako improves reliability, supporting the ability to fail-over to a secondary LTE connection in the event of a network disruption on its primary network connection. Its multi-mode network interface is complemented by Mako's robust VPN Cloud technology, a high-performance Wi-Fi wireless router, a powerful firewall and a host of other features designed to help protect businesses -- including multisite businesses, retailers and franchise operators - that process, store or transmit credit card data. The new 6500-M/LTE integrates seamlessly with Mako Networks' cloud-based Central Management System (CMS), allowing centralized remote access from the cloud for network administration and configuration. 

"We're delighted to be a part of Sprint's aggressive push to extend the services it offers on its LTE network to its commercial customers across the geos and markets that it serves," said Simon Gamble, President of Mako Networks North America. "The customer acceptance that Sprint has already seen is evidence of its industry-first position in machine-to-machine LTE and the uniqueness of Mako's PCI DSS-certified technology for secure financial transactions on Sprint's network."

The roll-out of Mako's new multi-mode LTE gateway appliance and its deployment on Sprint's network help Ikanos accelerate its momentum in the multi-mode gateway market. This is aligned with the company's stated diversification strategy to expand its addressable market, augmenting its technology leadership position in wired gateways deployed by top-tier carriers worldwide. The Fusiv® processor's distributed architecture provides Sprint and other carriers with ample headroom for growth, allowing the chip's host processor to support a breadth of carrier-specific applications while using multiple, dedicated acceleration processors to offload functions as diverse as cloud access, high-performance wireless content distribution within the home or enterprise, and network-attached storage (NAS).

"Sprint's launch of the new 6500-M/LTE is tremendous news in a commercial marketplace where 'five nines' uptime is virtually a mandate," said Kourosh Amiri, Vice President of Marketing at Ikanos. "At the same time, it's a testimony to the trust that Sprint and Mako place in Ikanos to deliver silicon and software solutions that provide uncompromising performance, availability and scalability. We are excited about the prospects this partnership with Mako brings to us and the opportunity it offers Ikanos to further expand our footprint in the wireless world."

About Mako Networks
 Mako Networks provides simple, secure cloud-managed PCI DSS certified networks for small and multisite businesses and is the world's only internet-connected network vendor to have an end-to-end PCI DSS certification that is extensible to the merchant. Operating internationally from offices in San Francisco, London, Sydney and Auckland, Mako integrates cloud management and reporting, Internet and Wi-Fi connectivity, 4G failover, VPNs, firewalls, end-to-end PCI DSS certification and content filtering into one, easy-to-manage system. For more information, visit www.makonetworks.com.

About Ikanos Communications, Inc.
 Ikanos Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ: IKAN) is a leading provider of advanced broadband semiconductor and software products for the connected home. The company's broadband DSL, communications processors and other offerings power access infrastructure and customer premises equipment for many of the world's leading network equipment manufacturers and telecommunications service providers. For more information, visit www.ikanos.com.

© 2015 Ikanos Communications, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Ikanos Communications, Ikanos and the Ikanos logo, the Bandwidth without Boundaries tagline, Fusiv, Ikanos Velocity and Ikanos NodeScale are among the trademarks or registered trademarks of Ikanos Communications. All other trademarks mentioned herein are properties of their respective holders.