U.S. metropolitan wdm a hot market, says new vendor

By STEPHEN HARDY

As it prepares to enter the U.S. wavelength-division multiplexing (wdm) market, Ericsson`s sales for metropolitan applications could account for as much as 50% of its U.S. total, according to a company source. The key will be to provide equipment that makes wdm cost-competitive with OC-192 (10-Gbit/sec) architectures at distances as short as 30 km and below, the source says.

Capitalizing on its experience as a telecommunications equipment supplier in Europe, Ericsson plans a major push into the United States for its transmission systems equipment. (It already has a significant component presence in the United States.) "Although the company already debuted a wdm system at last year`s supercomm show in New Orleans, LA, a second-generation wdm product that will debut this month at cebit in Hannover, Germany, may provide the key that opens the doors of U.S. network administrators.

"We consider the United States to be a key point for us," says Jose Daza, vice president for business development of transport and cable networks at Ericsson, Richardson, TX. While reluctant to provide many details of the new product before its introduction, Daza says that the system will feature an open architecture that will allow cost-effective capacity expansion in applications ranging from long-haul networks to metropolitan links. "Protection" will be a key selling point of the new product, he says without elaborating.

Even before the product`s official unveiling, Ericsson has discussed its attributes with potential customers in the United States. "At this time, we have been short-listed for a metropolitan application by one of the nationwide carriers," reveals Daza, who expects to reach an agreement for a field trial of the new system with this carrier in the near future.

"We are also participating in a number of tenders, especially now that the [regional Bell operating companies] are starting to be very, very active in this area," he says.

The potential market for wdm in general, and in metropolitan applications in particular, appeals to Daza. "We`re very keen on the fact that you can use wdm to build up networks in a completely different way," he says, "especially when you think about wdm providing interfaces for Internet protocol `giga-routers` and systems that do not need to go through the whole chain of [Asynchronous Transfer Mode (atm) and Synchronous Optical Network] layers. We think there is a fantastic opportunity to review the whole cost of the network and simplify." Daza says that the requirements for more robust networks now being encountered by Internet service providers will create a demand for Ericsson`s new product. The company is working with its data-communications partners to help it address the ATM/Internet protocol world.

Part of this demand will appear in metropolitan applications. "If you look at the cost situation, we think wdm really `costs in` compared to OC-192, even in very, very short distances," explains Daza. "And we think that will [create] a very good case for those operators who are looking to expand their fiber networks very fast." As a result, Daza predicts that 30% to 50% of Ericsson`s wdm sales in the United States this year will be for metropolitan applications.

Ericsson`s ability to make wdm cost-competitive with OC-192 at distances of 30 km and below--plus the ability to further expand capacity should future requirements warrant--will make it the metropolitan architecture of choice in the near future, Daza concludes. q