Global NAPs makes transition from circuits to packets

(Telephony) Global NAPs, a privately held East Coast competitive carrier, this week announced that it has completed the conversion of its network from an all-circuit-switch architecture to an all-packet-switch architecture.

By selling its last Class 4 switch on the used equipment market, the company removed the final vestiges of its circuit-based network, said Frank Gangi, president and CEO of Global NAPs.

“This is the telecom equivalent of the moon landing,” Gangi said. “Everyone talked about it, but no one went out and did it. We did it.”

While it is doubtful that Global NAPs will impact the world as much as Apollo 11, making the transition to an all-packet network will impact the CLEC’s bottom line, Gangi said.

“[Packet switches] take up a lot less room, they use a lot less power, they’re a lot more cost effective, they’re a lot cheaper on a DSO basis, and they have a lot more flexibility than I ever had before,” he said. “At the end of the day, it was one-tenth the cost, one-tenth the space and four times the capability.”

Global NAPs officials had envisioned such cost efficiencies after quickly becoming disillusioned with circuit-switched technology five years ago, Gangi said.

“We knew there had to be a better way to do this and that the traditional Nortel-Lucent guys hadn’t done it yet,” he said. “The packet was definitely the way to do this for one compelling reason … you can manage it so that you’re not wasting [bandwidth]. It’s much more efficient.”

While Global NAPs quickly determined the “ideal” network would feature ATM in the core and TDM at the edge, the company was not able to pursue the goal until it teamed with Convergent Networks, which was developing its ICS2000 packet switch. Global NAPs began beta testing the solution in March of last year, started deployment during the summer, and began decommissioning its circuit switches in September.

Gangi said the new network—featuring Sycamore Networks’ optical gear and Marconi’s ATM infrastructure—is expected to pay for itself in less than a year, during which time Global NAPs will build out its West Coast network and lease dark fiber to fill in a national network.

For Convergent, which is planning an IPO in the near future, having its first customer make the circuit-to-packet transition will help bolster the start-up’s credibility in the market, according to Convergent CEO John Thibault.

“[The partnership with Global NAPs has] been mutually beneficial to both companies,” Thibault said. “They are living proof that our technology is ready for production-level, carrier-class networks. That’s a really important step that a young company providing next-generation products has to go through.”