Tellium breaks the silence

BALTIMORE--While quiet periods can come at good times occasionally, Tellium chairman and CEO Harry Carr is glad his company’s quiet period is finally over. Despite the tumultuous market, the Tellium recently completed its IPO, freeing it to discuss company plans and strategy.

“We were fortunate to have a successful IPO in this market,” Carr said. “And that sends a strong message.”

The company’s Aurora optical switch has found homes with service providers such as Qwest and Dynegy. And, according to Carr, Tellium’s customers want switches that groom at high speeds, such as OC-48 and above. Competitors such as Ciena and Sycamore argue that switching should groom down to STS-1 levels in the core.

“In the core, they want switches that groom at those [higher] levels,” Carr said, noting that providers need to perform grooming at the edge rather than the core.

Because “grooming” switches break up traffic into channels, it makes millisecond restoration very difficult to accomplish, according to Carr.

“The switch has to fake out the switch fabric,” Carr said.

But, religious wars aside, Carr believes the correction taking place in the industry is good.

“There were a number of key factors [that caused the problems], and one was that capital was way too easy to get,” Carr said. “Anyone could put together a business plan and get money.”

Easy financing, combined with larger vendors offering financing to carrier customers, spelled disaster, he said.

“They were getting market share by buying customers,” Carr said, noting that innovation is really in the smaller equipment companies. The larger vendors aren’t really jacks-of-all trades, according to Carr.

“It’s more like a joke of all trades.”