Nortel (News - Alert) claims that its technologies are helping to define carrier Ethernet as a viable and a cost effective metro infrastructure. The company acquired 40 new customers globally during the past year, and now runs a vendor ecosystem with more than 25 members.

 

Delivering communications capabilities that make running a business easier is Nortel’s focus. The company said its strategy to build a customer base for carrier Ethernet solutions that offer simplicity more than complexity and ultimately drive down network costs.

 

Among Nortel's 40 customers are U.S. service providers Panhandle Telephone Cooperative, Golden West Telecom, Frontier and Dakota Carrier Network as well as KPN in the Netherlands, China Netcom (News - Alert), Australia's Silk Telecom and Promigas Telecomunicaciones in Colombia.

 

"Nortel strongly believes in the long-term value to service providers of our Carrier Ethernet solution," said Philippe Morin, president, Metro Ethernet Networks, Nortel. "Nemertes Research indicates that the demand for bandwidth could outpace network capacity by 2010, so we're not surprised to find that operators large and small are turning to Nortel's Carrier Ethernet solutions to deliver performance, scale, and reliability advantages more than other metro infrastructure alternatives out there, while maintaining cost-effectiveness. It's a strong solution intended to meet today's business demands and tomorrow's necessities."

 

"There's no doubt in our minds that choosing Nortel's PBB/PBT solution more than the competitor's MPLS offering was the right decision to expand our network capacity to support our drive into new markets with new services." said Gary Burke, plant manager, PTCI. "It only took five weeks between the time we signed the purchase order and the time this solution was running in our network. As a result, we are quickly able to meet customer demand for added video services and have already seen the revenue from our expanded network capacity."

 

Panhandle Telephone Cooperative, Inc (PTCI) is a service provider in Oklahoma and Texas. Their deployments of Nortel’s Carrier Ethernet solutions have enabled them to offer newest, residential, triple play offerings that include HD IPTV to customers.

 

Another company Golden West Telecommunications recently installed the Nortel's Carrier Ethernet solution for their use to provide high-bandwidth, 10/100 Mb/s for Ethernet Virtual Private Network (E-VPN) services and Golden West claims that the services are well received in the area of South Dakota.

 

"Business services represent a growing opportunity for us to both foster further economic growth in our area, and tap into new sources of revenue," said Galen Boyd, Western regional manager for Golden West. "By deploying Nortel's Carrier Ethernet solution as a complement to our existing Nortel optical infrastructure, we gain the network scale and quality that we need to support this important customer segment."

 

"With the steady increase of Internet traffic, the demand for more efficient bandwidth and the rising OpEx associated with these requirements, service providers are being forced to explore and adopt new business models if they are to stay competitive in an increasingly aggressive market. Investments in network intelligence are critical," said Ray Mota, chief strategist, Synergy (News - Alert) Research Group. "Because of their ability to adapt easily and move more quickly than Tier 1 carriers, independents carriers can be the pioneers in implementing Carrier Ethernet technology innovations."

 

Nortel is showcasing its Carrier Ethernet solution at the NXTcomm08 trade Show in Las Vegas this week.