If Nortel gets its way, the traditional role of Ethernet will be completely redefined.

The Canadian company has developed a new technology to be the foundation of service provider metropolitan networks. Now available in its Metro Ethernet Networks portfolio, the new technology - called Provider Backbone Transport (PBT) - is designed to allow service providers to deliver the communication and entertainment services to consumers and companies across cities and countries.

Provider Backbone Transport transforms Ethernet technology, traditionally restricted to small-scale, local networks, into a more reliable, scaleable and deterministic technology making it suitable as the basis for fixed and mobile carrier networks to deliver live video and broadcast, multimedia, broadband data and voice services.

 

“Ethernet is a pervasive information transport technology due to its simplicity and cost-effectiveness,” said Philippe Morin, president, Metro Ethernet Networks Nortel (News - Alert). "Nortel is now improving Ethernet and putting its simplicity and value at the heart of carrier networks.”

Nortel is working with the support of some of the world’s largest service providers and standards bodies to facilitate broad adoption of PBT as a metro technology. A first-to-market version of PBT is already available in the Nortel Metro Ethernet Routing Switch (MERS) 8600, with development also underway to integrate the technology into the Nortel Optical Multiservice Edge(OME) 6500 and other Ethernet-ready platforms.

Nortel is also introducing innovations to meet the growing demand for high-bandwidth video and data services in service provider metropolitan networks. Nortel's innovations enable service providers to confidently use Ethernet - once a technology used only for PC connectivity in the LAN - as the means for delivering mission critical high-bandwidth services like IPTV (News - Alert), mobile video, and business services.

 

“Nortel is delivering on its recently announced Metro Ethernet Networks focus, offering innovative solutions that are designed to give Ethernet the determinism, scale, management and service convergence capabilities that are needed to address the growing video transport market,” said Morin.

 

Morin continued: “As new video services become more pervasive, Metro Ethernet gives service providers the capability to satisfy the dramatically increasing requirements for bandwidth and strict performance in metropolitan networks while still maintaining the cost-effectiveness and simplicity that makes Ethernet attractive.”

 

These developments coincide with Nortel filing its un-audited financial statements for the first quarter of 2006. Revenues were $2.38 billion for the first quarter of 2006 compared to $2.39 billion for the first quarter of 2005 and $3.0 billion for the fourth quarter of 2005.

 

The company reported a net loss in the first quarter of 2006 of $167 million, or ($0.04) per common share on a diluted basis, compared to a net loss of $104 million, or ($0.02) per common share on a diluted basis, in the first quarter of 2005 and a net loss of $2,302 million, or ($0.53) per common share on a diluted basis, in the fourth quarter of 2005.

 

 

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