Sigma Networks Inc. today announced that it would offer three different types of wavelength services for carriers in the metropolitan markets it serves. The company provides connections among backbone networks, hosted service providers, data centers, and other traffic aggregation points (see Sigma Intros Metro Services).

Sigma currently offers service in San Francisco and Washington, D.C. Within the next two months it will turn on service in Dallas, Los Angeles, and New York.

Sigma's approach is interesting in that it is trying to offer a full menu of services in a few markets, rather than spreading itself thin in many places. It competes with outfits such as Looking Glass Networks, Sphera Optical Networks Inc., and a handful of incumbent local exchange carriers (ILECs).

Before today, Sigma offered Gigabit Ethernet, Sonet, and protected wavelength connections to carriers. Sigma is now selling two more wavelength services. It will offer unprotected wavelengths -- a lower-end connection that provides 99.5 percent availability -- and redundant-handoff/diversely-routed wavelengths, a more expensive kind of connection that boasts 99.999 percent availability.

Sigma made a big splash in January as it announced more than $435 million in equity and debt financing and a board of directors that included Loudcloud Inc. cofounder Marc Andreessen, former FCC chairman Reed Hundt, Atmosphere Networks backer Andy Rachleff, and former Concentric Networks (now XO Communications Inc. {Nasdaq: XOXO]) executive John Peters.

Separately, Sigma said it would use lots of Cisco Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: CSCO) gear in its network. It's jamming several wavelengths onto one fiber pair using Cisco's ONS 15216 Metro DWDM box; and it's aggregating DS3 (45 Mbit/s), OC3 (155 Mbit/s), and OC12 (622 Mbit/s) connections using Cisco's ONS 15454 transport box. Sigma uses Ciena Corp.'s (Nasdaq: CIEN) CoreDirector switch in its network as well.

It should come as no surprise that Sigma's network is built mostly with Cisco boxes. At least $260 million of Sigma's funding so far has come from a vendor-financing package from Cisco. Other Cisco-backed carriers include Advanced Radio Telecom Corp. (bankrupt), Pacific Gateway Exchange (bankrupt), ICG Communications Inc. (bankrupt), Rhythms Netconnections (bankrupt), and Viatel Inc. (bankrupt).

Sigma hasn't released any revenue or growth figures, but its customer list includes Broadwing Communications Inc. (NYSE: BRW), Cable and Wireless (NYSE: CWP), and AOL Time Warner Inc. (NYSE: AOL).

- Phil Harvey, Senior Editor, Light Reading
http://www.lightreading.com