Going from legacy T1 services to 10 Mbps or 1G Ethernet seems like a big jump at first, but most forward-looking school district CIOs know they are going to need 1G or more to pull off the type of transformations they are undertaking, according to John Real, Vice President Ethernet Services for Zayo Group. 

The Metro Ethernet Forum (MEF) has unveiled its Mobile Backhaul Initiative for 4G/LTE. The initiative, which combines a new implementation agreement that follows on to the existing MEF 22.1 with position papers and other educational aids, aims to guide service providers in the deployment and use of Ethernet’s multiple classes of service (Multi-CoS) capabilities. Proper use of Multi-CoS can save as much as 25% of the cost of using single CoS in backhaul applications, the MEF suggests.

Zayo Group is once again responding to growing capacity demands from its wholesale and business customer clientele by enhancing its Northeast route with a regional network that will support Ethernet and optical wavelength services. Zayo's northeast network. Boasting 800 Gbps of total network capacity, customers will be able to access transport service speeds of 1, 2.5 and 10 Gbps. Expected to be complete by end of first quarter 2012, the new network will provide services between Ashburn, Va., Chicago, Cleveland, New York and Philadelphia. David Howson, president of Zayo Bandwidth, said the new network will enable it to ...

LAS VEGAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Comcast announced that Navos has upgraded its network infrastructure to a 50 Mbps Comcast Business Class Ethernet connection in order to enhance communications and improve patient care

Russian regional operator Akado Telecom has raised the data transmission capacity for its internet access subscribers using Carrier Ethernet technology, reports Tass Telecom...

The company’s backbone claims to be peered globally and is described as creating an “interconnect relationship methodology with service providers around the world that facilitates MPLS and Carrier Ethernet delivery in homogeneous fashion focusing on QoS from end point to end point”.

Acquisition Strengthens MSP With Its Own Facilities-Based Carrier Network United Network Services, Inc. (UNSi), a leading provider of managed services for voice and data networks, announced recently it has completed a strategic expansion by acquiring IPNetZone Communications, Inc., a nationwide next generation network provider. The acquisition of IPNetZone and its established MPLS network positions UNSi as a

United Network Services, Inc. (UNSi), a leading provider of managed services for voice and data networks, announced today it has completed a strategic expansion by acquiring IPNetZone Communications, Inc., a nationwide next generation network provider. The acquisition of IPNetZone and its established MPLS network positions UNSi as a major player in the managed network services space gaining their own advanced backbone networ

The Metro Ethernet Forum last week announced new standards aimed at substantially improving the economics of carrier Ethernet mobile backhaul by offering a consistent class of service framework to address the requirements of various services types.  

SmartBand, a managed bandwidth circuit that prioritizes communications traffic from the cloud. It comes with guaranteed QoS and supports DSL, T1 and Ethernet over Copper access. SmartBand is available in more than 230 metro markets.

Driven by Ethernet, wavelength and MPLS sales, Business Markets Group (BMG) generated $446 million in strategic revenues, up 2.8 percent over pro forma fourth quarter 2010. Total revenue, however, declined 3.3 percent to $947 million due to declines in legacy services and data integration revenues.

"OTN is going up as a result of several things, but the main catalyst is 40/100G," he said. "The SDH hierarchy just isn't worth expanding into these higher speeds, and OTN offers a much better solution going forward, including the capability of handling Ethernet transparently, better OAM&P (management) and true service transparency. Although OTN switching and transport hardware collectively made up 45 percent of the overall global equipment spending the first half of last year, Infonetics forecasts that it will grow to 70 percent of the revenue mix by 2015."

Twelve Optical Internetworking Forum (OIF) member companies are conducting a global interoperability test of Ethernet services over OTN transport, including data and control plane technology...

Not surprisingly, the focus of the FiberLight network will be on delivering Ethernet-based services to businesses and serving area wireless operators with an alternative source of wireless backhaul.

Consumer and business demand for better, faster broadband also appears to be picking up, as is the competition to provide it. Incumbent carriers like CenturyLink (NYSE: CTL) and AT&T (NYSE: T) are bridging speed gaps with technologies like Ethernet over Copper, while cable operators, fast moving up in the broadband pack, offer Internet technologies that utilize their existing coax lines.

Frontier will now offer its Metro Ethernet service in the Muskegon market.  MetroE, as Frontier brands the service, is designed for medium to large businesses. The large-volume Internet service is designed for those with “bandwidth intensive industries” and data centers, company officials said.

There is still a significant BSS/OSS challenge for cloud: Making MPLS and Carrier Ethernet services into on-demand offers to match the expectations of the cloud crowd is not a simple proposition, nor is adding on-demand capabilities to existing portals.

It’s steady as she grows in the U.S. Ethernet market. The same companies that could say they held 4% or more of billable port options this time last year can say the same thing this year. Ethernet port growth held relatively steady too, rising 31% as compared to last years’ 34%.  

As more multinational enterprises adopt cloud-based services and videoconferencing to conduct business, they are looking to their respective service providers for wider IP VPN and Ethernet coverage, and service providers are responding by expanding their offerings by as much as 40 percent in international markets.    Between Q3 2010 and Q3 2011, the availability of Ethernet-based services (EoMPLS, EoSDH, and VPLS) rose 40 percent, while international IP VPN service availability grew 8 percent.   To expand the reach of their respective IP VPN offerings, the majority of the service providers surveyed said they had to work with various service provider wholesale partners ...

ATLANTA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Southern Telecom, a wholly owned subsidiary of Southern Company (NYSE: SO), today announced that Tower Cloud, a leading fiber optic and wireless backhaul network provider, has selected the company for long-haul fiber optic services in the state of Georgia. “Tapping Southern Telecom’s long-haul fiber solution will provide a critical link in Tower Cloud’s Ethernet backhaul network expansion,” said Ron Mudry, chief executive officer of Tower Cloud. “Our expanded network wi

Everyone else is obsessing over the cloud, so why not the Metro Ethernet Forum (MEF)?  The MEF has been thinking about cloud standards for some time, and one problem is that there are so many possible things to try to standardize. The prioritization phase is happening now

AT&T, Verizon and tw telecom are leaders in the U.S. business Ethernet market based on billable port installations, Vertical Systems Group, the market research and strategic consulting firm, announced Monday. Other companies who ranked in Vertical's U.S. Business Ethernet Leaderboard included Cox Communications, XO Communications, CenturyLink, Time Warner Cable, Level 3 Communications and Cogent Communications. Boston-based Vertical, which ranks service providers that hold four percent or more o

Vertical Systems Group today released its 2011 U.S. Business Ethernet Leaderboard, featuring the leading carriers according to Ethernet port market share. The 2011 year-end report showed fairly Read more >>

Comcast’s Metro Ethernet network, introduced in May 2011, is targeted to business customers, including hospitals. The company can transport data at faster speeds than traditional phone company Internet connection, said Kevin O’Toole, Comcast’s senior vice president of product management and strategy for business services. A hospital can download a 500 megabyte digital X-ray in 40 seconds with Metro Ethernet, a file that would take 44 minutes to download with a slower connection, said Jennifer Khoury, a Comcast spokeswoman.

Going from legacy T1 services to 10 Mbps or 1G Ethernet seems like a big jump at first, but most forward-looking school district CIOs know they are going to need 1G or more to pull off the type of transformations they are undertaking, according to John Real, Vice President Ethernet Services for Zayo Group. 

The Metro Ethernet Forum (MEF) has unveiled its Mobile Backhaul Initiative for 4G/LTE. The initiative, which combines a new implementation agreement that follows on to the existing MEF 22.1 with position papers and other educational aids, aims to guide service providers in the deployment and use of Ethernet’s multiple classes of service (Multi-CoS) capabilities. Proper use of Multi-CoS can save as much as 25% of the cost of using single CoS in backhaul applications, the MEF suggests.

Zayo Group is once again responding to growing capacity demands from its wholesale and business customer clientele by enhancing its Northeast route with a regional network that will support Ethernet and optical wavelength services. Zayo's northeast network. Boasting 800 Gbps of total network capacity, customers will be able to access transport service speeds of 1, 2.5 and 10 Gbps. Expected to be complete by end of first quarter 2012, the new network will provide services between Ashburn, Va., Chicago, Cleveland, New York and Philadelphia. David Howson, president of Zayo Bandwidth, said the new network will enable it to ...

LAS VEGAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Comcast announced that Navos has upgraded its network infrastructure to a 50 Mbps Comcast Business Class Ethernet connection in order to enhance communications and improve patient care

Russian regional operator Akado Telecom has raised the data transmission capacity for its internet access subscribers using Carrier Ethernet technology, reports Tass Telecom...

The company’s backbone claims to be peered globally and is described as creating an “interconnect relationship methodology with service providers around the world that facilitates MPLS and Carrier Ethernet delivery in homogeneous fashion focusing on QoS from end point to end point”.

Acquisition Strengthens MSP With Its Own Facilities-Based Carrier Network United Network Services, Inc. (UNSi), a leading provider of managed services for voice and data networks, announced recently it has completed a strategic expansion by acquiring IPNetZone Communications, Inc., a nationwide next generation network provider. The acquisition of IPNetZone and its established MPLS network positions UNSi as a

United Network Services, Inc. (UNSi), a leading provider of managed services for voice and data networks, announced today it has completed a strategic expansion by acquiring IPNetZone Communications, Inc., a nationwide next generation network provider. The acquisition of IPNetZone and its established MPLS network positions UNSi as a major player in the managed network services space gaining their own advanced backbone networ

The Metro Ethernet Forum last week announced new standards aimed at substantially improving the economics of carrier Ethernet mobile backhaul by offering a consistent class of service framework to address the requirements of various services types.  

SmartBand, a managed bandwidth circuit that prioritizes communications traffic from the cloud. It comes with guaranteed QoS and supports DSL, T1 and Ethernet over Copper access. SmartBand is available in more than 230 metro markets.

Driven by Ethernet, wavelength and MPLS sales, Business Markets Group (BMG) generated $446 million in strategic revenues, up 2.8 percent over pro forma fourth quarter 2010. Total revenue, however, declined 3.3 percent to $947 million due to declines in legacy services and data integration revenues.

"OTN is going up as a result of several things, but the main catalyst is 40/100G," he said. "The SDH hierarchy just isn't worth expanding into these higher speeds, and OTN offers a much better solution going forward, including the capability of handling Ethernet transparently, better OAM&P (management) and true service transparency. Although OTN switching and transport hardware collectively made up 45 percent of the overall global equipment spending the first half of last year, Infonetics forecasts that it will grow to 70 percent of the revenue mix by 2015."

Twelve Optical Internetworking Forum (OIF) member companies are conducting a global interoperability test of Ethernet services over OTN transport, including data and control plane technology...

Not surprisingly, the focus of the FiberLight network will be on delivering Ethernet-based services to businesses and serving area wireless operators with an alternative source of wireless backhaul.

Consumer and business demand for better, faster broadband also appears to be picking up, as is the competition to provide it. Incumbent carriers like CenturyLink (NYSE: CTL) and AT&T (NYSE: T) are bridging speed gaps with technologies like Ethernet over Copper, while cable operators, fast moving up in the broadband pack, offer Internet technologies that utilize their existing coax lines.

Frontier will now offer its Metro Ethernet service in the Muskegon market.  MetroE, as Frontier brands the service, is designed for medium to large businesses. The large-volume Internet service is designed for those with “bandwidth intensive industries” and data centers, company officials said.

There is still a significant BSS/OSS challenge for cloud: Making MPLS and Carrier Ethernet services into on-demand offers to match the expectations of the cloud crowd is not a simple proposition, nor is adding on-demand capabilities to existing portals.

It’s steady as she grows in the U.S. Ethernet market. The same companies that could say they held 4% or more of billable port options this time last year can say the same thing this year. Ethernet port growth held relatively steady too, rising 31% as compared to last years’ 34%.  

As more multinational enterprises adopt cloud-based services and videoconferencing to conduct business, they are looking to their respective service providers for wider IP VPN and Ethernet coverage, and service providers are responding by expanding their offerings by as much as 40 percent in international markets.    Between Q3 2010 and Q3 2011, the availability of Ethernet-based services (EoMPLS, EoSDH, and VPLS) rose 40 percent, while international IP VPN service availability grew 8 percent.   To expand the reach of their respective IP VPN offerings, the majority of the service providers surveyed said they had to work with various service provider wholesale partners ...

ATLANTA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Southern Telecom, a wholly owned subsidiary of Southern Company (NYSE: SO), today announced that Tower Cloud, a leading fiber optic and wireless backhaul network provider, has selected the company for long-haul fiber optic services in the state of Georgia. “Tapping Southern Telecom’s long-haul fiber solution will provide a critical link in Tower Cloud’s Ethernet backhaul network expansion,” said Ron Mudry, chief executive officer of Tower Cloud. “Our expanded network wi

Everyone else is obsessing over the cloud, so why not the Metro Ethernet Forum (MEF)?  The MEF has been thinking about cloud standards for some time, and one problem is that there are so many possible things to try to standardize. The prioritization phase is happening now

AT&T, Verizon and tw telecom are leaders in the U.S. business Ethernet market based on billable port installations, Vertical Systems Group, the market research and strategic consulting firm, announced Monday. Other companies who ranked in Vertical's U.S. Business Ethernet Leaderboard included Cox Communications, XO Communications, CenturyLink, Time Warner Cable, Level 3 Communications and Cogent Communications. Boston-based Vertical, which ranks service providers that hold four percent or more o

Vertical Systems Group today released its 2011 U.S. Business Ethernet Leaderboard, featuring the leading carriers according to Ethernet port market share. The 2011 year-end report showed fairly Read more >>

Comcast’s Metro Ethernet network, introduced in May 2011, is targeted to business customers, including hospitals. The company can transport data at faster speeds than traditional phone company Internet connection, said Kevin O’Toole, Comcast’s senior vice president of product management and strategy for business services. A hospital can download a 500 megabyte digital X-ray in 40 seconds with Metro Ethernet, a file that would take 44 minutes to download with a slower connection, said Jennifer Khoury, a Comcast spokeswoman.