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I did an RFP for all 4 of these corporations in reviewing our requirements for a NID, Network Interface Device. Plus a couple more that are still on the market.

• Sprint & Nextel
  
• ATT & TMobil
  
• Global Crossing & Level 3

Consolidations in the marketplace have been needed in the carrier market for a LONG TIME. I think everybody was just wondering when it would happen. Well we know about the ISP / carrier market now. I still suspect that a couple more will happen.

On the NID / smart demarc for Ethernet? Well when I went to RFP we had 8 different companies that we were reviewing. EIGHT. That’s too many. Most of them did the same thing. One of my biggest concern 4 years ago when we went through the exercise was: Which of these companies are going to be economically viable 5 years from now :) Guess what we are about 5 years out and there is justifiable concern over the boxes. One large Carrier in the southeast was using Hatteras. I wonder what they are thinking now. The vendor we picked wasn’t my choice, but the project got moved away from me so I didn’t have the final say so on direction. But our choice is still around, I’m not sure the guy who took over the project put as much weight on company financials and viability as did I, but that’s probably another story.

I don’t suspect our vendor will be around much longer as it exists today. With this consolidation starting, it won’t be long before somebody larger will pick them up and their customer base. I just hope the one we picked does the buying rather than the getting bought. It usually ends up with equipment vendors that the buyee’s products goes away.

But then again almost 4 years ago, I rambled about the NID market going away entirely as the functions were integrated into the customer based premises gear. Well, I guess that hasn’t happened or isn’t going to happen. Why? Well the main reason I see is that the carrier market likes to have a piece of gear that’s their own at the premises. It gives them a *KNOWN* good piece of equipment to test against versus trusting that the customer has enough knowledge and experience to place a device with NID capabilities at the premises

So I was wrong in my predictions about the NID market. Or maybe I”m not wrong I just predicted the demise too early? It was a relatively long germination period for Ethernet services to get rolled out as widely and as ubiquitous as the market pundits predicted. Here we are 1011 and the Standards have been out for 6 or 8 years now. It’s just now hitting stride and appearing to make money. Yeah I know we are still in the first adopters phase. I just wonder if it’s going to go gangbusters like they predicted?

Anyway, I can predict this. Stay tuned for more consolidation. It’s inevitable. ]]>

• Posted by admin at 02:46:15 in VPLS
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