As business and consumers increasingly demand high-speed, high-capacity Internet access for digital media downloads, local and remote data storage, and coast-to-coast office connectivity, markets for wavelength services will grow considerably. According to a new report from market researcher Frost & Sullivan (San Antonio, TX), the US wavelength services market totaled $360 million in revenues in 2000, its first full year of availability. Revenues are expected to jump to almost $2 billion by 2007.

"For raw, high-capacity bandwidth at the most reasonable price, optical waves offer the best option for transporting data," says Frost & Sullivan analyst Rod Woodward. "Optical waves have emerged as ost-effective alternatives to dark fiber solutions."

Wavelength services are scalable solutions that use optical waves to transport data at high speeds. Carriers that need capacity for bandwidth-intensive services are often eager to avoid the expenses of lighting dark fiber solutions.

The wavelength services market will continue to grow despite the loss of important customers for wholesale services, contends the report. Several competitive local exchange carriers (CLECs) have declared bankruptcy or are limiting service expenditures, which are potential hindrances to the wavelength services client pool.

"Traditionally, CLECs have depended on inter-exchange carriers for long-distance transport and regional Bell operating companies for local voice and data services," says Woodward. "Fewer CLECs could mean fewer potential customers for wavelength services."

To overcome this obstacle, some wavelength service providers are expanding their geographical reach, and are teaming up with other optical networking service providers.

"Alliances are being developed between long haul and metro providers," says Woodward. "By working with local metro providers, long haul companies looking to establish footprints in new markets can employ metro wave and Gigabit Ethernet services to reach particular metro areas."

This ongoing research is part of the "U.S. Wholesale Services Market Service," which also includes market analyses on wholesale data service markets and bandwidth service markets. For more information, visit the company's Web site at www.frost.com.