Carrier Ethernet

Ericsson profit drops 70%, but N.A. sales up

Dan O'Shea — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 23:43:10 -0400

Ericsson posted second quarter earnings that included a 70 percent decline in net income to $319 million from the second quarter last year. Corporate restructuring and the weakness of the U.S. dollar combined with a lack of return from the SonyEricsson handset joint venture continue to weigh on the company. Still, sales in North America were up 47 percent to $720 million, growth that came somewhat from IPTV and broadband-related contracts in the region.

Ericsson, which used to be most relevant as a wireless vendor where the North American market was concerned, has acquired several companies to give it a stronger front in wireline IP and broadband. The company also recently targeted the carrier Ethernet arena via its Redback Networks unit.

For more:
- see this earnings take at Light Reading Europe
- and a different one at Telephony

Related articles:
Ericsson recently moved into the carrier Ethernet space. Ericsson report
Ericsson named Hans Vestberg CFO late last year. Ericsson report

Ethernet drives Brocade bid to buy Foundry

Dan O'Shea — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 23:21:47 -0400

Brocade, a major supplier of fibre channel technology for enterprise data centers, announced it will buy Foundry Networks, a major supplier of Ethernet technology for about $3 billion. The combination issues a competitive challenge to the likes of Cisco Systems and Juniper Networks. The deal comes as the market for network operator and enterprise data centers is undergoing changes, and technologies are converging. Data centers that have been fibre channel-base may be moving toward a fiber channel over Ethernet standard. Everything keeps coming up Ethernet.

For more:
- check out this coverage at EETimes
- see this analysis at Light Reading

Related articles:
Foundry saw cautious carrier spending this year. Foundry report
Cisco acquired the rest of Nuova earlier this year. Cisco report

Research: Ethernet-based mobile backhaul lags

Dan O'Shea — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 08:35:53 -0400

Heavy Reading, the analysis firm associated with publication Light Reading, said at an LR conference in London last week that mobile carriers still are not moving en masse to Ethernet-based mobile backhaul. As data traffic volumes continue to increase, Ethernet should be poised to take over the related backhaul challenge, but according to the research, mobile carriers may not have enough confidence in Ethernet quality.

If the research proves broadly indicative, this notion would be a major blow to Ethernet vendors and carriers that are hanging their futures, in part, on the promise that Ethernet is about to become the mobile backhaul technology of choice.

For more:
- read this story at Light Reading's Unstrung

Related articles:
The carrier Ethernet sector was heating up at NXTcomm Carrier Ethernet report
Ericsson-Redback recently started targeted carrier Ethernet Carrier Ethernet report

Speakeasy resells XO's Ethernet over copper

Dan O'Shea — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 09:52:53 -0400

XO Communications has begun using resellers to address portions of the Ethernet market it doesn't directly cater to, such as business with fewer than 100 employees. That is a sweet spot for Best Buy unit Speakeasy, which is now reselling the XO service. XO also is working with other resellers, including larger, non-Bell competitive carriers. While the resellers can expand the exposure and availability of XO's Ethernet service, a story at Telephony notes that reseller strategies also sometimes involve the threat of competitive overlap.

For more:
- read this report at Telephony

Related articles:
Cogent Communications recently reduced Ethernet prices Cogent report
Carrier Ethernet made big news at NXTcomm last week Carrier Ethernet report

NXTcomm: Carrier Ethernet heats ups

Dan O'Shea — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 05:16:11 -0400

What's hotter than the temperatures approaching 105 degrees outside of the Las Vegas Convention Center this week? Naturally, it is the heat being generated by Carrier Ethernet announcements being made inside the convention center at NXTcomm. There have been a number of product announcements and advancements offered by Tellabs, Alcatel-Lucent, Ericsson, Ixia, Soapstone Networks, Extreme Networks, Fujitsu, Foundry Networks, Actelis and others. While this week's announcements address a variety of market trends, it might be safe to say that increasingly apparent needs for bigger and better mobile backhaul options are fueling some of the activity, while the emergence of a complex multi-carrier, multi-network Ethernet environment also factoring into the innovations.

For more:
- read this story at Network World
- here's the news from Foundry and Extreme at Network World

Related articles:
Ericsson-Redback targets Carrier Ethernet Carrier Ethernet report
Alcatel-Lucent announced PBB/VPLS integration at NXTcomm this week Alcatel-Lucent report

NXTcomm: Hatteras lands Integra, NTS Workspace deals

Dan O'Shea — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 21:07:31 -0400

Mid-band Ethernet specialist Hatteras Networks announced at NXTcomm that it has landed two new contracts for deployment of its EtherFLEX mid-band Ethernet system. The deals involve Integra Telecom in the Northwest U.S. and NTS Workspace in Switzerland. Integra Telecom is using the Hatteras gear to launch new Metro Ethernet services over copper in Salt Lake City and Boise, offering speeds from 5 Mbps to 30 Mbps.

Hatteras also talked more at the show about its news EtherFlex operating system announced late last month. Gary Bolton, vice president of marketing at Hatteras, said during the show that the auto-provisioning and greater SLA capabilities enabled by the new operating system reflect the complexities of the ongoing carrier Ethernet expansion. "Our customers are moving to more sophisticated services and service layering with multiple SLAs," he said.

For more:
- read this article at the NXTcomm 2008 Daily News site

Related articles:
Integra Telecom got a big investment from Warburg Pincus last year Integra Telecom report
Hatteras said earlier this year that mid-band Ethernet was primed Hatteras Networks report

NXTcomm: Alcatel-Lucent collects carrier contracts, acquires Motive

Dan O'Shea — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 20:39:34 -0400

Alcatel-Lucent had a big day Tuesday, announcing at NXTcomm some major carrier deals and a new technology development involving provider backbone bridging, and separately unveiling the acquisition of Motive for about $68 million. The carrier contracts included a $1 billion deal with China Mobile to provide the carrier with TD-SCDMA gear and other equipment for its 3G build-out; an IP-MPLS deployment project with U.S. independent telco Embarq; and a IP service router contract with BT. The China Mobile deal comes shortly after Alca-Lu also announced a contract with leading wireline carrier China Telecom.

The deal with Embarq is the vendor's first IP technology project with that telco. At BT, Alcatel-Lucent already has seen it service router deployed, but now the services being supported are expanding from 106 exchanges to about 600 exchanges.

The vendor also announced it is combining PBB technology with virtual private LAN service in networks where VPLS is already heavily used. KPN Telecom in The Netherlands is hosting the first deployment of the combined solution. Lindsay Newell, vice president of marketing for Alcatel-Lucent's IP division, said at the show that four major carriers-KPN, BT, Verizon and France Telecom- already support a draft standard for PBB/VPLS integration.

Regarding the Motive buy, Alcatel-Lucent has been working with the remote subscriber management specialist for about three years.

For more:
- check out this coverage of the China Mobile deal at India's Economic Times
- see this story about PBB and VPLS at Telephony
- find out more about the Motive acquisition at Light Reading Europe

Related articles:
Alcatel-Lucent recently announced new service management adapters Alcatel-Lucent report
Embarq recently decided to outsource voice network management Embarq report

Ericsson-Redback targets carrier Ethernet

Dan O'Shea — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 10:37:25 -0400

Redback Networks, a pioneering vendor in the area of subscriber management and now a subsidiary of vendor giant Ericsson, is extending itself into the business of building carrier Ethernet switches. The company's new SM 480, which you no doubt will be able to talk to Redback more about at NXTcomm next week, borrows some capabilities from Redback's SmartEdge platform for the metro core, featuring a multitude of port configurations, in-service upgrades and deep quality of service capabilities. The company has its competitive sights set on Alcatel-Lucent. Read this story at Network World

Related articles:
Redback was acquired by Ericsson in December 2006 Redback report
Redback was eyeing expansion earlier this year Redback report

Cogent takes ax to Ethernet prices

Dan O'Shea — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 00:23:53 -0400

Cogent Communications, which often has received notice for its aggressiveness marketing and selling of Ethernet services, is dropping the prices for long-term and high-volume Ethernet service contracts. The new prices include $7 per megabit with a three-year contract, and as low as $6 per megabit for 100 Mbps or more volume, as well as other new offers. The slashed pricing is sure to gain some notice in the highly competitive carrier Ethernet market.

One of the company's key competitors is Level 3 Communications, which was on the ropes a few months back as it struggled with M&A integration challenges, but now seems to be in recovery mode. Maybe Cogent is hoping to strike while Level 3 is still somewhat dizzy from past events.

For more:
- read this story at Telephony

Related articles:
Cogent last month was said to be revamping its sales efforts Cogent report
Last year, Cogent was an Honorable Mention on our list of Top 10 Service Providers on the Cutting Edge Cogent report

Metric of the Week: Copper-based Ethernet aims for $630 million

Dan O'Shea — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 22:54:19 -0400

The market for copper-based carrier Ethernet access platforms will reach $630 million by 2011, according to a new report from Heavy Reading. Numerous vendors have been pushing products and sales pitches into the market, and their effort is bearing fruit, with sales of the gear up 75% from the first quarter last year to $185 million in the first quarter this year.

For more:
- read this press release

Related article:
Ethernet-over-copper vendor Aktino hired a new CEO in March Aktino report