Broadwing’s optical path

LAS VEGAS--Now that Broadwing has proudly boasted of its first “all-optical” network that uses Corvis equipment, the company is trying to reach out to customers with the use of Gigabit Ethernet. The company also revealed plans during Networld+Interop this week to open up what it is calling “Optical Media Centers” in Cincinnati; Dallas; Santa Clara, CA; and New York.

“We are testing Gigabit Ethernet services to take the LAN concept across the country,” said Richard Ellenberger, president and CEO of Broadwing. “CIOs won’t have to worry about the protocols they choose because Gigabit Ethernet is protocol agnostic,” he said.

The provider is in beta tests with Fortune 1000 companies and it plans to offer the Optical Gigabit Ethernet service between customers LANs. Broadwing plans to use the Optical Media Centers to offer storage services for its customers.

“Storage is the next great wave of how the network will be used,” Ellenberger said, stressing that the liquidity of bandwidth will also be key. “The dreams of the all-optical network are coming to pass. We will be able to unlock new customer sets and we have a six-month to a year head start on the competition,” he said.

Qwest Communications and Williams recently announced plans to use the same Corvis equipment Broadwing has already deployed and turned up in its network.

“It is unusual to have a company that’s able to change so quickly,” said David Huber, CEO of Corvis. “Broadwing is the only carrier that can [send] traffic over a true optical switch,” Huber said. “They have no electrical interface. It is strictly photons to photons.”

Broadwing hopes the network design will help them provision services in a much more efficient manner and by extending their network with Gigabit Ethernet, that photon to photon capability will stretch out even further.

“We sold six OC-192 pairs and installed them in less than 45 days,” Ellenberger said. “That would have taken one to three years before,” he said.