One of the stocks damaged during the dot-com bubble in 2000 has been continuing its comeback.

Ciena (CIEN), the optical telecom equipment maker, saw its revenue drop from $1.6 billion in 2001 to $361 million in 2002, an 80% decline. This hurt the stock significantly, as shown in the chart below—and the company has never fully recovered.

Aggressive network build-outs by communications service providers during the now-termed “dot com bubble”—in anticipation of high-traffic growth—led to network overcapacity. And as the telecommunications industry experienced a severe downturn in early 2001, equipment suppliers like Ciena were vulnerable.

Meanwhile, the threat of new competitors, emerging technology and price competition caused operators to cut back on network build-outs, with industry spending on optical networking equipment falling 65% from $27 billion in 2001 to $9.4 billion in 2002.

But CEO Gary Smith told Yahoo Finance the company is firmly in a new era of growth.

The cloud effect

From 2001 to 2005, Ciena made six acquisitions to broaden its markets and include new customer segments. This diversification then extended to an aggressive global roll-out.

And Smith explained that the Ciena of today—which supports more than 1,300 customers worldwide—is benefitting from early stages of increased demand for data.

As more people around the world migrate data and applications to the cloud, we need a lot more physical infrastructure to support that build-out, according to Smith. The company benefits from both the build-out of telecommunications companies and from internet 2.0 companies.

Telecom companies like AT&T (T) and Verizon (VZ)—Ciena’s traditional bread-and-butter customers—have been continuing to spend to build out their infrastructure, Smith explained. That’s happening even as both companies also focus on acquisitions—DIRECTV and Yahoo Finance parent company Yahoo (YHOO), respectively.

“There’s a big build-out right now,” Smith explained. “They’re building out infrastructure to get content to the users.”

But importantly, over 37% of Ciena’s business came from non-traditional telcom infrastructure in its latest quarter. That includes content companies like Facebook (FB) that have been focusing on developing data center connectivity, which Smith said is a key growth market.

Meanwhile, the optical business—known traditionally as a cyclical one—is less vulnerable to fluctuations because it has a more diverse customer base today, Smith said.

“I think we’ve demonstrated that in the last five or six years if you look at the company’s growth,” Smith said.

Ciena is also benefiting from the growing “internet of things,” which includes even more “smart devices,” including self-driving cars.

“They require mobile connectivity,” Smith explained, adding that Ciena is key for growth in this area. “The thing about mobile is that it’s only mobile for a short distance … So all of those demand characteristics we stand to benefit from.”

Last quarter, Ciena reported revenue growth of 11%, citing share gains and market opportunities, and reiterated its ability to resist pricing pressure.

International sweet spot

While internet upgrades and growth in the US are key drivers, Smith emphasized the real push is in international markets, particularly in developing countries.

India, which is Ciena’s fastest growing market, may hold the greatest potential, particularly from mobile, he said.

“You’re seeing big-build out basically skipping out the terrestrial, fixed line evolution that the rest of the industrial world has gone into,” Smith said. “Their first experience of the internet is most often on the mobile phone.”

Nicole Sinclair is markets correspondent for Yahoo Finance.