The IPTV Angle

Carrier Ethernet is for consumers, too: "About 80 percent of the service providers that we surveyed that are offering services to enterprise customers are actually looking at offering some sort of consumer-based service."

Usually that service is IPTV. The carriers doing this will be using one network for both business and consumer services. IPTV is certainly hot, but I wonder if they're doing this as a way to help fill the networks; is it possible that even with Ethernet being hot, some carriers are worried about oversupply?

Hubbard knows of no single Website that tells you what carrier Ethernet options are available in your area. The next best thing: He spotlighted Optimum Lightpath for having a Website that tells you if your address is on its fiber network.

What he found was that the Light Reading NYC headquarters is, in fact, on the network. Much better than the "absolutely hopeless" experience reported by Fearless Leader Steven Saunders back in 2005.

— Craig Matsumoto, West Coast Editor, Light Reading