Qwest (NYSE: Q) is playing into the business customers` need for high speed dedicated bandwidth with its new optical-based E-Line Ethernet service.
Already adopted by managed video transport provider Hibernia Media to operate dedicated media networks, the new service rides on Qwest`s nationwide DWDM network and leverages MPLS for intelligent routing and concatenation.
While Qwest has offered point-to-point Ethernet services for a number of years over its existing optical networks, those services ran over SONET. The new E-Line service, according to a report in ConnectedPlanet, delivers the DWDM-based service to the customer via new CPE equipment. Qwest, however, did not reveal the CPE vendor it is using for the E-Line service.
Eric Bozich, vice president of Qwest National Network Services, told Connected Planet that the new CPE equipment "provides granularity and gives flexibility in the loop technology."
The new CPE Qwest is deploying for the new E-Line service can support SONET, DS-1 and metro Ethernet. Because the new CPE can support a wide range of incremental data rates over these diverse media sources, business users can increase their bandwidth speeds with a simple programming change if they have the available bandwidth on their access link. Business customers can order the E-Line service in bandwidth increments starting as low as 5 Mbps and up to 1 Gbps.
