EdgeCast Networks Inc. announced Monday that it's licensing its content delivery network (CDN) software to carriers, creating the potential for federated CDNs.

EdgeCast runs its own CDN, which carriers can resell to their customers. But for more than two years Edgecast has also been selling the software to operators that have opted to build their own CDNs. Monday's announcement is EdgeCast's first public acknowledgement of this part of the business.

The company is also saying that one Tier 1 U.S. carrier is running one of these licensed CDNs. EdgeCast isn't allowed to say who, but a report a year ago said it was AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T).

Why this matters
Why bother announcing the licensing business when "everybody in town knows we do this," as EdgeCast President James Segil puts it? Because EdgeCast wants to be known for having a head start on competitors, particularly Akamai Technologies Inc. (Nasdaq: AKAM), when it comes to bragging about federating CDNs -- that is, connecting CDNs to one another for expanded reach.

Akamai is big on the idea, as are some carriers and vendors. Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE: ALU) is working in this direction with its CloudBand architecture, for instance.

Standing out as a frontrunner might be particularly important considering there are no standards for CDN federation yet.

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— Craig Matsumoto, West Coast Editor, Light Reading