Targeting SMEs With Ethernet Services Online Training Meeting

There is a huge pent-up demand for Ethernet services, particularly in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Depending on the definition, SMEs outnumber large enterprises by at least an order of magnitude. Virtually all of them have one or more voice telephone lines, most have one or more computers, and their needs to connect to the world are often more intensely felt than in large enterprises. However, the carrier data services available to SMEs are not scaled to fit their needs, and SMEs can’t afford their high costs.

The established telephone companies would seem to be the natural suppliers of Ethernet services to SMEs. The telcos’ biggest competitive weapon is the broad reach of their networks since their cables go everywhere. In part because of the conventional access lines lost to competitive carriers, the telcos have plenty of excess capacity in their access infrastructures. The trick is to find ways to redeploy these assets to enable Ethernet availability to become virtually universal throughout the telcos’ access networks.

This online training meeting will take a look at the U.S. telcos and examine how they can leverage their existing access networks to achieve ubiquitous Ethernet connectivity. Several major U.S. telcos already have “circuit-to-packet” programs underway to transform their network cores and end-offices to packet technology. We will look at how widespread Ethernet connectivity to SMEs could create an explosion in demand for advanced and enhanced services enabled by IP and delivered by Ethernet.

The worldwide Ethernet equipment market has been projected to double by 2007. About two thirds of the requisite equipment will be Ethernet/fiber equipment. But fiber connectivity is not nearly ubiquitous in the telcos and is almost unheard of in SMEs. So new approaches and new products will be required to exploit the mostly-copper access networks that extend to SMEs. The Webinar will look at some examples of new Ethernet delivery mechanisms and products that are emerging to answer these challenges.

Click here to sign up for the online training meeting.