What slowdown?

Pangaea uses both fiber and copper networks to deliver Ethernet, while Speakeasy is using copper and Network Innovations is still a fiber-only Ethernet provider.

“We are doing both copper and fiber — it depends on the size of the circuit,” Rocks said. “In many of our applications, we deliver copper to the end user, but we bring it back to a carrier hotel core and we hand off fiber to the carrier. Many carriers don't have ability to do anything but fiber.”

For international players, Pangaea has an exclusive NNI and becomes their feet on the street in the U.S. “They are handing us orders to get to their customers,” Rocks said. “With some of the other Ethernet providers, they have network footprint in areas where we don't and vice-versa, so it's more like a bilateral agreement.”

The crucial thing for Pangaea is to work with other network providers that are offering carrier Ethernet, as spelled out by the Metro Ethernet Forum, Rocks said. Other Ethernet products don't deliver the quality of service required to let customers combine voice and data onto the same circuit.

After working with service providers for some time, Pangaea now finds itself being drawn into providing service for very high-end enterprises but doesn't plan to go down-market. “In addition to [an Ethernet circuit], carriers provide small businesses with other services that we don't intend to provide,” Rocks said.

Even the turmoil in the financial market has had an upside for Pangaea, he added. With all the companies closing and merging, “there is massive consolidation going on as people consolidate data centers, and that represents opportunity for a smaller player like Pangaea,” Rocks said. “They are taking down bandwidth in one area and adding it in anther, and they want to make it more efficient. We can groom networks and look for more efficient and effective pricing for them.”