By Kimberly Caisse
Network World, 09/24/01

If your need for faster, less expensive metropolitan-area network services happens to be in one of the top 20 U.S. cities, Optical Ethernet may be for you.

But know the risks. Ethernet service is mainly being offered by start-ups, although a few incumbents, such as Qwest Communications (through its acquisition of US West), offer it selectively.

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"It's hard to say who's going to be around long term because most of the start-ups are privately held," says Jason Knowles, an analyst at Current Analysis. He notes that most of the start-ups have scored funding in the last nine months.

Also, the last mile to the office building remains an issue. Providers such as Yipes Communications and Cogent Communications will build out to multitenant buildings for customers, Knowles says. In the case of Telseon, the service provider reselling Telseon's Ethernet service has to build a customer's last mile. But no matter who handles the construction, getting MAN to your office can take up to nine months.

Users need to realize that Ethernet MANs restrict them to using the Ethernet protocol. Private line service lets users run any protocol, including Fibre Channel and ATM.

Optical Networking

And while Ethernet supports video, its latency isn't low enough to fully support the audio portion of video conferencing, says David Passmore, research director at The Burton Group: "Carrying a two-way conversation is challenging."

- Kimberly Caisse

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Gigabit Ethernet Research page

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