Telebriefing Replay & Podcast

Optical Transport: Differentiation Beyond Basic Capacity

Brian Washburn
Research Director, Network Services

Jason Marcheck
Principal Analyst, Optical Infrastructure

June 13, 2007

For enterprise-class customers, optical transport is a foundation service that provides both the high capacity and high reliability to support critical business applications. Optical transport in North America was once synonymous with SONET, but as the technology evolved it expanded to include simple Ethernet transport, channel extension, and even entire wavelengths of capacity. Carriers compete in terms of network reach, service guarantees, and - of course - on price; they are adopting new generations of infrastructure to increase their capacity, lower their costs, and find points of service differentiation.

In this telebriefing, Jason Marcheck, Principal Analyst, Optical Infrastructure and Brian Washburn, Research Director, Network Services for Current Analysis examine the equipment and services trends of the optical transport market landscape. This telebriefing addresses questions such as:

• What equipment features do carriers need to evolve their service offerings?
• Who are the carriers in the broad universe of optical transport providers?
• What are major optical transport service providers doing to differentiate their core and access networks and services from their competitors?
• How is demand for simple Ethernet transport services faring relative to sophisticated, networkable Ethernet?
• How does a customer differentiate between services in a world where every carrier guarantees five 9's availability?
• Aside from tariff guidelines, is it possible to determine what the price of an optical transport service really should be?

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