Resolutions

The new year is upon us. Let us resolve to see some of the following become reality.

•  Carrier trials turning into production deployments: Nothing is more tedious than reading - and writing - about products and projects in the seemingly endless cycle of lab and field trials. Many pundits say incumbent local exchange carriers and regional Bell operating companies will engage in major next-generation optical, wireless, IP, multiservice, Ethernet and packet telephony buildouts in 2003. Bring it on already...

•  MPLS: As part and parcel of the IP router buildouts expected this year, Multi-protocol Label Switching is supposed to find a warm, loving nook among heretofore stand-offish customers, particularly RBOCs. BellSouth seems to be leading the charge (careful of the arrows) with a nine-state MPLS-based managed VPN service. And some reputable consultants have even been quoted as claiming that 2003 will be "The year of MPLS." Show us...

•  Carrier capex continuing to soften: But how can these buildouts take place when carrier capital spending, strained as it was in 2002, will be even more so in 2003? Worldwide wireline capex is supposed to be down this year compared to last by a low single-digit percentage, and 45% from 2000. What gives? That can only mean...

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The new year is upon us. Let us resolve to see some of the following become reality.

•  Carrier trials turning into production deployments: Nothing is more tedious than reading - and writing - about products and projects in the seemingly endless cycle of lab and field trials. Many pundits say incumbent local exchange carriers and regional Bell operating companies will engage in major next-generation optical, wireless, IP, multiservice, Ethernet and packet telephony buildouts in 2003. Bring it on already...

•  MPLS: As part and parcel of the IP router buildouts expected this year, Multi-protocol Label Switching is supposed to find a warm, loving nook among heretofore stand-offish customers, particularly RBOCs. BellSouth seems to be leading the charge (careful of the arrows) with a nine-state MPLS-based managed VPN service. And some reputable consultants have even been quoted as claiming that 2003 will be "The year of MPLS." Show us...

•  Carrier capex continuing to soften: But how can these buildouts take place when carrier capital spending, strained as it was in 2002, will be even more so in 2003? Worldwide wireline capex is supposed to be down this year compared to last by a low single-digit percentage, and 45% from 2000. What gives? That can only mean...

•  More carrier-grade buildouts in the enterprise: Thank heavens for the federal government. One major RFP expected to be issued and awarded this year is the two-year, $875 million Global Information Grid Bandwidth Expansion (GIG-BE) project to upgrade the Defense Information Systems Agency's network with optical, Ethernet and enhanced security technologies. GIG-BE is expected to benefit U.S. equipment vendors in general and may favor larger ones in particular, such as "pseudo incumbents" Cisco, Lucent and Corning, analysts say. GIG-BE will likely be awarded to a prime systems integration contractor, which will dole out subcontracts to the equipment vendors.

Happy New Year.