Frontier serves up 10G optical transport in 25 states

Frontier Communications (Nasdaq: FTR) is serving up its new 10G optical transport service for its customers in 25 states that leverages its widely deployed DWDM-based ROADM platforms.

Offering point-to-point fiber paths, the service will be available to a host of wholesale carrier and enterprise customers that have high bandwidth needs. The service also includes necessary Service Level Agreements (SLAs).

Customers that purchase the service will get a point-to-point dedicated wavelength connection that uses a shared infrastructure with protocol support and protection configurations. Because the new service incorporates a self-healing network system, it can ensure network redundancy and uptime.

Already, Frontier is seeing interest for the 10G service from a number of its retail business customers whose bandwidth needs are continuing to rise.

"We currently have three folks on board just within the retail shop, which you would think it would be the other way around," said Lisa Partridge, carrier data product manager for Frontier Communications, in an interview with FierceTelecom. "It just goes to show how explosive bandwidth is right now, and 1 Gig is not getting it done for some of these folks."

So what's next? While Frontier could offer a 40G product, the telco plans to introduce a 100G tier.

"We're not even thinking about 40 Gig," Partridge said. "We're going to go right to 100 Gig based on what we're seeing in the industry."

Frontier's new 10G optical transport service complements its growing Ethernet service portfolio.

In January, the service provider added QoS capability that enables traffic prioritization capability based on user-defined applications and two new Ethernet Virtual Private Line (EVPL) service tiers.

Using the Ethernet network it built in 55 markets stretched across 10 states in October 2011, the telco introduced a new Ethernet Virtual Private Line (EVPL) Silver service last February. As a point-to-point product, EVPL Silver will offer a range of Ethernet interfaces of 10/100/1000 Mbps and can scale from 1 Mbps to 1 Gbps.

For more:
- see the release

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