SureWest Communications (NasdaqGM: SURW) may no longer be a wireless player as it sold off its wireless assets to Verizon, but the ILEC continues to thrive as a supplier of wireless backhaul to all of the major wireless operators in its Sacramento, CA and Kansas City, Mo. serving areas.
To help ensure QoS of the Ethernet-based backhaul services it provides to wireless operators, the service provider has employed the help of Accedian Network's MetroNID Performance Assurance Platform. While more wireless operators are migrating away from slow speed TDM-based T1 circuits for wireless backhaul to Ethernet, the new protocol poses various challenges in terms of network monitoring.
With the Accedian platform, SureWest says it will be able to monitor latency, packet delay, packet delay variation and availability. Before deploying Accedian MetroNIDs in its network, SureWest went through a careful selection process that considered not only performance assurance monitoring and reporting features, but also performance, interface density and power consumption.
The ongoing rise of new wireless smart phones and all you can eat data plan is creating a bountiful opportunity for wholesale wireline providers like SureWest. A recent Infonetics report on Ethernet services pointed out that the rise of Ethernet exchanges and wireless backhaul helped to drive the worldwide Ethernet services market $20.8 billion--a 23 percent increase over 2008.
For more:
- see the release here
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