WAN Services /

Williams plans Ethernet push

MAN, WAN offerings said to be cheaper, more scalable than private line.

By Michael Martin
Network World, 06/17/02

Williams Communications is planning to enter the metropolitan-area and wide-area Ethernet services market later this year with offerings the company says will be more scalable than those available from others.

"A lot of companies have announced Ethernet services, but many of those are just over private lines," says Rodger Williams, manager of product development for enhanced data services at Williams.

What this condition means for customers, Williams says, is they still have to pay private-line prices for their Ethernet services and can't scale their bandwidth very well because they're restricted to private-line bandwidth increases.

Williams' services, which the company intends to launch this fall, will use Ethernet over dense wavelength division multiplexing equipment (DWDM) in the MAN. For long-haul Ethernet connections, Williams will map customer VPNs to the company's Multi-protocol Label Switching-based Cisco backbone.

Williams has yet to decide on an equipment supplier for its network edge Ethernet equipment, but has tested a variety of gear in the company's labs.

Customers will be able to get subprivate-line pricing and will be able to scale bandwidth more incrementally than with a private-line service - possibly in 1M bit/sec increments, Williams says. The company has not yet decided exactly what speeds and increments will be available, however.

Williams says it believes offering Ethernet over DWDM should give the company a cost advantage.

But business customers are unlikely to care about whether they get their Ethernet services over SONET or DWDM, says Beth Gage, an analyst with consultancy TeleChoice and a Network World columnist. What they will care about is pricing, reach and reliability.

The question of reliability may be an issue for some potential Williams customers. Williams' parent company, Williams Communications Group, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in April. However, before filing, Williams had reached a $6 billion debt-restructuring deal with a majority of its creditors and expects to emerge from the Chapter 11 process with a clean balance sheet. When it filed for Chapter 11, the parent company tried to reassure Williams Communications customers by saying the telecom division likely would not be affected by the reorganization process.

For the regional Bell operating companies such as Verizon and SBC Communications, and the interexchange carriers such as WorldCom and AT&T, it makes more sense to use the infrastructure they already have in place, which is SONET, Gage says. For newer carriers without a large installed base of legacy gear, cheaper DWDM equipment might be a better choice.

Williams won't be able to provide as much reach as some of its competitors because the company operates only metropolitan core rings and a nationwide long-haul network. It has no metropolitan grids running to buildings off the metropolitan core. But service providers or corporations operating out of a collocation facility on a Williams metropolitan ring would be able to access the Ethernet services. And large business customers operating their own campus grids could also take advantage of Williams' offerings.

While Ethernet isn't yet a widely available service outside the LAN or campus, more carriers are leaping into the market, says Nick Maynard, an analyst with research firm The Yankee Group.

"Everyone who's a survivor in the telecom market is throwing out [press] releases with the word 'Ethernet' in them," he says.

Even the RBOCs have gotten into the act. BellSouth and SBC offer tariffed metropolitan Ethernet services. Other providers offering Ethernet services include Yipes Communications (in Chapter 11 bankruptcy), Cogent, Telseon, XO Communications, Time Warner Telecom and Qwest.

Some providers offer Ethernet Internet access from a collocation facility, while others offer service out to the customer premises.

Ultimately, Maynard says, service providers are going to need to offer a package of services and bandwidth.

"You can't build a business model by just offering a cheap, fat pipe," he says.

TeleChoice's Gage says the Ethernet services market is still in its infancy.

"Last year there was a learning curve for enterprise customers," she says. "Now they've been educated about it and are beginning to look at these services." Over the next few years, every carrier is going to need to develop an Ethernet strategy if it wants to compete for large enterprise accounts, she says.

Edging into Ethernet
Features of Williams’ planned Ethernet services include:

•
Metro core and wide-area offerings only.

• Will ride over dense wavelength division multiplexing gear.

• Will be sold on a wholesale basis to service providers and enter- prise customers.

• Expected to launch in late Q3 or early Q4.