Could private networks free up more corporate bandwidth?

Financial institutions and healthcare may be two of the largest vertical industry users of bandwidth, but they are continually finding that their connections are getting clogged up during peak usage times. To resolve this ongoing issue, many members of these vertical segments are building out their own private WAN networks.   

Traditionally, these verticals have been content to work with traditional service providers (AT&T, Qwest or Verizon) to get their bandwidth and related voice and data services. However, two dynamics are driving financial and healthcare companies to look at new alternatives: the ability to stretch the reach of the WAN and dealing with network congestion from the ongoing adoption of IP-based voice and video services.

Obviously, those companies that can build their own private networks will be able to circumvent the traffic congestion issue. Still, building a private WAN network comes at a hefty cost that not every company can afford--even in a good economy. Those companies that can't build their own networks will unfortunately be at the mercy of waiting for more fiber to be built out by traditional service providers--a process that will likely take decades to achieve.

For more:
- Forbes has this article