According to new research from IDC, spending on metro Ethernet services in Western Europe will reach 2,200 million in 2007. In this new study, IDC sizes the metro Ethernet market in Europe in two categories: those services used for broadband access for both businesses and consumers, and those used for transparent LAN (T-LAN) services for businesses. While initially T-LAN services were a larger proportion of total spending in 2002, they will be overtaken by broadband services over the next five years. There is a larger addressable market for broadband since it includes consumers as well as businesses.
“The expansion of Ethernet from the LAN to the metro has resulted in much hype over the last year,” said Jill Finger Gibson, research manager, European Telecommunications Services. “Metro Ethernet does indeed offer a growth opportunity for service providers, but the hype over the service needs to be tempered with a close examination of its disadvantages, as well as the advantages, and a recognition that businesses are more careful than ever in spending their IT budgets on migrating to new communications services, even if those services promise to save them money.”
The primary driver of metro Ethernet for broadband access is the need for greater bandwidth and the desire of regional governments and cities to improve their communications infrastructure in order to make their areas more attractive for prospective investors and residents.
The primary driver of metro Ethernet for T-LAN is currently price, since the costs to service providers to deploy Ethernet compare favourably to those for traditional SONET/SDH, and CPE costs for the customer are lower as well. However, the market is hindered by a lack of capital available for new telecoms ventures and the expense of laying fibre.
“Service providers owning network infrastructure have the opportunity to enter the metro Ethernet market, but it depends on the country, region, or city,” said Finger Gibson.
“The U.K., Switzerland, and Sweden are markets hat probably cannot support more players as they are intensely competitive already. However, opportunities do exist for incumbents and players in countries where there are weak or few competitive providers.
“As the investment available for building new telecoms infrastructure remains scarce, new providers should look to utilities, housing associations, real estate companies, and local and regional governments that may have fibre in the ground and a desire to improve their infrastructure to attract investment.”
2003-08-08
Notícias