GVTC, a Texas-based independent telco, is adapting its expertise in delivering residential and business-based fiber services to try its hand in the wholesale Ethernet services market.
Leveraging a fiber network that contains 2,200 miles of fiber cable, GVTC will sell a mix of Ethernet access, Ethernet transport and fiber to the tower (FTTT) services to a host of over-the-top content providers, voice/data carriers, fiber segment providers, and data center providers.
Set on delivering access to metro and remote markets that reside in Central and South Texas, GVTC will target customers in Dallas, Houston, Austin, San Antonio, and Mexico.
To support the wholesale business, GVTC has expanded its fiber network, which includes speeds exceeding 100G, along with securing a presence in data centers and carrier hotels in Austin and San Antonio. One of the unique aspects of the network build is that it includes a unique, diverse path along U.S. Highway 281, enabling end-to-end Service Level Agreements (SLAs) and protected low latency rings for real-time applications, such as disaster recovery, synchronous data replication, and cellular backhaul.
An early FTTH pioneer for residential customers, GVTC said its entry into the Wholesale Carrier Ethernet market diversifies the company's revenue streams to help offset lower demand for traditional telecommunications services, along with regulatory changes affecting the wireline industry.
GVTC is hardly alone in its desire to diversify its business with a wholesale channel. A number of other independent telcos such as Consolidated Communications, FairPoint, Lumos Networks, and Shentel have made similar transitions by building out purpose built fiber networks that simultaneously address wireless backhaul and business service opportunities.
But attracting new carrier customers is just one benefit of the wholesale network build. By building out a series of POPs located throughout the network, GVTC creates two potential benefits: a number of smaller Texas markets such as Boerne, Bulverde and Gonzales served via GVTC's GigaRegion partnership can get access to Ethernet access services while new businesses could find the area a more attractive area to house their operations.
In related news, GVTC selected LightRiver Technologies to perform a significant network upgrade and expansion in its region. Using its Factory Built Network approach, supported Ciena's 6500 Packet-Optical Platform, LightRiver has provided a full turnkey solution from consultative engineering and architectural design support to manufacture certified installation of the network. This enables GVTC to leverage packet and optical technologies with multilayer end-to-end network management and planning.
This network upgrade allows GVTC to build unique low-latency rings between San Antonio and Austin to satisfy the stringent SLA and QoS requirements of its content provider and wireless carrier customers for fiber-based Ethernet access and protected transport services.
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