One of Wall Street's most prominent telecom industry analysts, Morgan Keegan of Simon Leopold, suggests that Verizon Communications is conducting a narrow search for a vendor to supply it with an integrated packet optical networking platform. (This is a transport technology evolution not to be confused with passive optical network access architectures).
Specifically, Keegan says the list of vendors who received the RFP may number no more than four. Though carriers have favored suppliers, an RFP list that short is somewhat out of the ordinary. Many vendors have been integrating Ethernet switching or native interfaces with their transport gear, so there are definitely more than four possible choices for Verizon.
For More:
- Telephony covers Keegan's assertions