NEWPORT BEACH, Calif. -- Extensive research across North America, Europe and the Asia Pacific has consistently predicted operational savings over 20% within three years of replacing legacy private line, frame relay and ATM services with Ethernet across the metropolitan area - and now the modeling tool used in this research has been released to all members of the Metro Ethernet Forum (MEF). The model provides an impressive, detailed picture of the actual steps required to deliver services to an enterprise customer and then monitor and support that service. The result is a model accurately tracking operating costs to the service provider based on real-world data provided by over 50 governments and leading service providers worldwide.

"This is a valuable service to our growing membership" explains Gary Southwell, vice president of the MEF. "As well as top service providers like AT&T, British Telecom, France Telecom, NTT, SBC and Verizon, we have an increasing number of big-name equipment vendors in our ranks who will be able to build a rock-solid case on the benefits of migrating to carrier-class Ethernet technology. There is plenty of support anyway for using familiar Ethernet technology in the wider area, and people are well aware that its massive user base means less initial capital expenditure. This OpEx modeling tool completes the picture it provides the industry's first database of real world operational data that operators can use to estimate their own savings or provide a benchmark against which to test their own progress, and competitiveness. The benchmark data on its own has already indicated average operational savings increasing year on year and averaging 23% over three years worldwide".

Metro Ethernet Forum (MEF)