Rapid investment returns fuel Ethernet over Copper growth

Having collectively spent billions of dollars building out fiber-based Ethernet services, service providers are expanding their portfolios with lower-speed Ethernet over Copper-based services, a new Heavy Reading report says. Long heralded by both competitive carriers (XO Communications [1] and tw telecom) and two RBOCs (AT&T and Qwest), Heavy Reading's Carrier Ethernet Access Platform (CEAP) Quarterly Market Tracker reports that worldwide sales of copper-based Ethernet rose 42 percent year-over-year to $266 million in the four-quarter period ending in the first quarter of 2009. By 2013 Heavy Reading forecasts that the combined global Ethernet over copper pair platform sales will reach about $500 million.

Buoyed by ongoing deployments in Europe and in the U.S., tier two (Actelis and Hatteras) and tier one (ADTRAN) vendors are taking the lead in the Ethernet over bonded copper arms race. In the Ethernet over TDM segment, Overture Networks again took the number one spot followed closely by ANDA and RAD. Additionally, the Ethernet over fiber platform segment also will see an uptick as service providers expand their Ethernet business service suites and wireless operators and wholesalers adopt Ethernet-based wireless backhaul.

For more:
- Here's the official release [2]

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Hatteras sells EoC repeaters to Utah telco [3]
Speakeasy resells XO's Ethernet over copper [4]