Australia makes its debut in the worldwide Metro Ethernet Forum

Australia has made its debut in the Metro Ethernet Forum (MEF), an industry body comprising more than 120 organizations across the globe.

Telecommunications data specialist, Uecomm, is the first Australian carrier to join the MEF which is working to accelerate the worldwide adoption of Carrier-class Ethernet networks and services, and to promote interoperability and standards.

Announcing Uecomm's membership, MEF president, Nan Chen, said carrier ethernet services are set for explosive growth across Asia, Europe and North America with a worldwide compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 37 percent.

Uecomm was an early adopter of carrier Ethernet and is committed to the promotion of global MEF specifications; they are ideal partners for us to launch in Australia," Chen added.

Uecomm CEO, Dean Tognella, said MEF membership aligns closely with the company's aggressive growth strategy.

As the first carrier to provide Ethernet WAN services to business customers in Australia, Tognella said Uecomm has led the way in the development of the local Carrier Ethernet market.

"By joining forces with the MEF, we're taking the next step in raising awareness of the benefits of Ethernet services such as scalability, simplicity and transparency," he said.

Market Clarity CEO, Shara Evans, said the establishment of a founding MEF member in Australia is a positive step forward for the local industry.

Evans said the deployment of high speed broadband in Australia will push the growth of Ethernet in Australia.

She said the local market is growing at a CAGR of 17.9 percent and will surpass $300 million by 2011.

"If we include Ethernet connections sold as part of an MPLS service, this figure could easily double," Evans added.

"Having followed the MEF's standards work for many years now, I've seen first hand how the MEF's work has transformed Ethernet from a LAN technology to a robust, carrier grade service architecture complete with QoS, resiliency, and other features required for enterprise networks.

Established in 1997, Uecomm is part of the Optus SingTel group of companies and is a fully owned subsidiary of Optus Networks.

Uecomm was the first company in Australia to offer Ethernet Metropolitan Area Networks.

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