"Enterprises and carriers today increasingly turn to Ethernet as a platform for convergence. The standardization work led by the MEF is a contributor of growth and an important enabler of interoperability, consistency, and improved technical performance within the Ethernet services market."

David Parks
Senior Analyst
Telecommunications Strategies United States
The Yankee Group
July 2004

"The importance of Ethernet as a transport and service infrastructure can't be underestimated.

It will represent the most important evolutionary step carrier networks will make over the next decade, creating seamless connectivity between the vast installed base of Ethernet LANs and consumer devices and the service provider network.

This transformation will be driven carriers' need to optimize their infrastructure for new classes of high-speed data services, and the rise of high-performance computing applications that leverage the low-cost and scalability of Ethernet transport and switching."

Scott Clavenna
President
PointEast Research

"Ethernet as a carrier-grade transport and switching solution will represent the most important evolutionary step in service provider networking over the next decade. This transformation will be driven by carriers' need to optimize their infrastructure for new classes of high-speed data services, and the rise of high-performance computing applications that leverage the low-cost and scalability of Ethernet transport and switching.

Scott Clavenna
President
PointEast Research

"The MEF multivendor interoperability demonstration is an important milestone in the ongoing evolution of Ethernet from the LAN to the WAN. The demonstration is particularly important because it highlights the carrier-grade capabilities of metro Ethernet that enterprise customers demand and which carriers must offer. Carrier-grade features include Quality of Service and Class of Service guarantees that specify parameters
for availability, delay, jitter, loss, Committed Information Rates, and Peak Information Rates, among others"

Sterling Perrin
Sr. Research Analyst
Optical Networks, IDC

"While the worldwide appeal of metro Ethernet among service providers is driven by its lower CAPEX and OPEX, what end-user customer's like most about this important new technology is its service flexibility. Metro Ethernet's popularity is validated by the continual growth of the MEF, bringing together the key players of the telecom industry. The MEF is developing an industry-wide consensus facilitating the standardization of metro Ethernet.

Michael Howard
Principal Analyst and Co-Founder
Infonetics Research

"In survey after survey, European carriers confirm Metro Ethernet as their hottest area within the transmission market where their budget is really focused. And that's just the top end of the market: at the other extreme there's also a significant opportunity for start-up companies offering low-cost bundled services - phone, Internet, tv, interactive tv and video on demand - to homes and small businesses."

Ian Keene
VP and Chief Analyst
Gartner Group

It isnt only being driven by the carriers - to get to maturity the market requires tangible reasons to adopt Metro Ethernet and the doldrum that the commercial rental property market finds itself in is one such reason. By providing Ethernet to the desktop in such buildings landlords can reap great return on investment. The market could easily exceed the anticipated $14 billion within two years with such a demonstrable ROI.

Keith Humphreys
Founder and Chief Analyst
EuroLAN Research

"In recent research, I've found that you couldn't go to a carrier and not
sense just how important Ethernet Services are in that organization."

Scott Clavenna
Chief Analyst at Heavy Reading
November 2003