18th March, New Delhi  – India’s potential to take a world lead in next generation telecom technology will be a keynote theme in the forthcoming MEF (Metro Ethernet Forum) workshop to be held on Friday March 21st at Convergence India 2008, New Delhi. No other country can compare to India’s combination of soaring communications demand plus relative lack of legacy telecoms infrastructure – the ideal opportunity for India’s service providers to build a next generation infrastructure around data-friendly Carrier Ethernet technology.

With an urban population of 285 million, and despite a broadband penetration of less than one percent, India is one of the top 6 Internet usage nations in the world and still showing high double digit annual growth. According to Nitin Bhat, Head of Telecom Services, Frost & Sullivan: "We have observed that the service popularity and uptake of metro Ethernet were largely driven by the urban planning scenario in each country. On top of that, countries leading the way generally have two major characteristics -- rapid evolution in broadband demand and large clusters of property development."

“Wireless backhaul is another burgeoning application this year” according to Nan Chen, MEF president, “and it has hardly begun to be addressed in India. The challenge for India’s exploding mobile business is to meet the pressure from increasing mobile usage by offering a cost-effective migration path from legacy backhaul networks to an all-IP Carrier Ethernet solution. It’s the natural choice, because Carrier Ethernet’s scalability allows decoupling of traffic volume from capital and operating expenses, so operators can handle massive growth in video and data traffic at far less cost.” In the United States, for example, Optimum Lightpath is already using Carrier Ethernet to deliver mobile backhaul services to cellular operators with guaranteed SLAs, high capacity and unprecedented rates.

India is also distinguished for its exceptionally low average revenues per user, making its carriers highly cost conscious. In this scenario, the cost-competitive and flexible structure of Carrier Ethernet is a key tool for the Service Provider in this extremely challenging yet attractive market. However, according to Sarath Kumar, Tejas Networks’ Group Director Ethernet & Network Design & Architecture: “There is a still much work to be done in spreading awareness among customers. There is still a lack of information about the availability and benefits of Ethernet services. Traditional leased lines have been synonymous with secure and reliable wide area connectivity, and the MEF is actively promoting the benefits of Carrier Ethernet Services to the global business community. This New Delhi MEF Workshop is an important step in the right direction.”

The workshop begins at 10.30 am, with a brief introduction and update on progress with the MEF – including membership, certification, market statistics and news of the latest feedback on their 2008 Mobile Backhaul Interoperability Test Event program. Then follows a presentation on the latest technology issues and solutions, plus a pointer to future developments, and finally a few examples of Carrier Ethernet deployments in individual market sectors.

“According to the World Bank, India could quintuple the size of its economy simply by raising the standards of its less successful companies” added Nan Chen. “The cream at the top of Indian business is already world class, so what is needed is the communications infrastructure to bring the rest of the nation together and create a competitive market that will lift their mediocre performers to comparable levels. The staggering spread of mobile phones shows the people’s hunger to communicate and be heard – Carrier Ethernet will make an enormous impact in India.”

Backgrounder Metro Ethernet Forum

For further details on Carrier Ethernet and this event visit the MEF web site at http://www.MetroEthernetForum.org/

For more information about the Forum, including a complete listing of all current MEF members, please visit the MEF web site at http://www.MetroEthernetForum.org/