US Signal (Booth 231) announced it has added Ethernet enhancements to its private-line and Internet access products, which are sold through channel partners.

The Grand Rapids, Mich.-based company has deployed equipment from ANDA Networks EtherTone product line to provide Ethernet connections to its 3,000-routemile, fiber-based data network throughout Illinois, Indiana, Michigan and Wisconsin.

We have seen increasing demand for Ethernet technology and solutions in the marketplace, said Kirk Dombek, product manager for US Signal. The ability to connect and reach geographically diverse locations over efficient, scalable Ethernet connections is motivating many businesses to simplify their network architecture while simultaneously reducing costs.

ANDAs EtherEdge 4000 aggregation and EtherReach 2000 CPE platforms combine traditional local access technologies onto single Ethernet interfaces, allowing business customers to reach the US Signal fiber network using an Ethernet connection service provided over DS1 and DS3 facilities. These types of Ethernet connections are attractive to network managers because of the lower deployment cost of customer equipment and the increased scalability, the transport reliability and the reach of network bandwidth used for converging all IP applications over a common Ethernet WAN access service.

During the next year, we expect the growth of these types of approaches for addressing the sweet spot of 1M-50M Ethernet access services to boost overall revenue in the North American market for business Ethernet services by an additional $5 billion by 2009, said Michael Howard, principal analyst at Infonetics Research. Carriers have been deploying fiber solutions but to effectively reach most business customer locations (typically only 10-15 percent if business locations are directly connected via fiber) they need to have a method of quickly reaching and providing Ethernet-based services to all the copper-fed buildings.”

ANDA Networks Inc. www.andanetworks.com
Infonetics Research www.infonetics.com
US Signal  www.ussignalcom.com