By Tom S. Noda
Computerworld Philippines
January 25, 2010

Globe Telecom is set to boost the adoption of carrier-class Ethernet networks and services in the Philippines after being certified by the Metro Ethernet Forum (MEF), which the telco claims is a first for the local telecommunications industry.

Gilbert Virtucio, technical solutions architect, enterprise sales support of Globe, said MEF has certified that Globe’s carrier Ethernet offerings conform to MEF 9 service-provider specifications.

Virtucio said MEF is a non-profit group composed of over 150 of the world’s top service providers and major equipment vendors. It puts together technical specifications and implementation agreements to make sure that Carrier Ethernet services worldwide can work together seamlessly. These specifications are used as grounds for certifying companies.

“Like Wi-Fi certified logos you see in boxes, which was certified by the Wi-Fi alliance, this one, the MEF is the assurance for a Carrier-class Ethernet network that was tested by experts,” Virtucio said, adding MEF’s Ethernet as a service works in a multi-vendor environment.

The globe executive said this year they will work with MEF in the evangelization of Carrier Ethernet as a service in the Philippines–essentially a response to the growing need for a connection that is simple, easy to manage, high quality, scalable, and always available. He said such a connection is able to stream information, data, voice or video, all at the same time.

Virtucio revealed the growing market for Carrier Ethernet worldwide is estimated to reach US$39 billion by 2013, but declined to give figures on the local market. However, he claimed that revenue from each of the regional Carrier Ethernet market segments such as the US, Asia Pacific, EMEA, and the rest of the world, have all been found to be growing twice as fast as that of competing technologies.

Virtucio said the roster of offerings of Carrier Ethernet providers may include E-Line, E-LAN and E-Tree services.

Globe Business, he said, has been making Carrier Ethernet services available since 2000 via its high-speed BAX (Broadband Access Service) network. The company has also made significant investments in the IP-Converged Optical Network (ICON) upgrade and other aspects of its network infrastructure. Most of Globe’s clients are call centers and BPO companies.

“ICON is the Philippines’ first and only pure IP MPLS (Internet Protocol – Multi Protocol Label Switching) network, and its reliable and secure network backbone helps Globe Ethernet service users enjoy low resiliency and latency,” claimed Virtucio.

He described the Ethernet interface as flexible and cheaper, noting that it can increase and decrease a bandwidth instantly.

Rommel Macapagal, senior marketing manager, enterprise product management of Globe, said that beside BPOs, the company aims to offer Ethernet to the country’s financial institutions this year.

“Banks realize the need for high bandwidth for storage purposes and also for their data recovery centers,” Macapagal said. “The price of technology is going down significantly, and they are more affordable.”

Both Virtucio and Macapagal said MEF 9 checked whether Globe’s Ethernet, Ethernet Virtual Private lines, and Ethernet LAN Ethernet services conformed to the MEF’s own standards called the UNI, or User Network Interface. The testing process itself, which was conducted by the test laboratory Iometrix, consisted of a lab test, where the service provider builds out a service infrastructure in a lab for initial verification, and a field test, where more tests were performed on production circuits.

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