Adding another big carrier to its roster of Ethernet exchange partners, CENX said Intellifiber Networks will offer services through an initial connection at the CENX location in New York City. Joining the CENX exchange will allow Intellifiber to expand its Ethernet connectivity offerings to its service provider customers.
A division of Cavalier Telecom launched in early 2009, Intellifiber operates a 17,000-mile fiber network that offers SONET, Ethernet, customized private networks, and low-latency routing to more than 100,000 business locations. The company has been building out its last-mile Ethernet-over-copper solution to meet the growing enterprise demand for carrier Ethernet services. The CENX partnership will allow Intellifiber to deliver Ethernet from its customer locations to any CENX-connected location around the world.
Launched last year with three Carrier Ethernet exchanges, in Los Angeles, New York City and Chicago, CENX calls itself the first fully neutral Carrier Ethernet voice exchange service. Previously, carriers have had to exchange Ethernet traffic either in one-off bilateral exchanges, which are cumbersome and difficult to scale, or in multi-operator “voice tandems,” which typically charge on a per-minute basis.
The company competes with data-center and colocation providers such as Telx and Equinix, who have recently said they will open Carrier Ethernet exchanges at their facilities. Watching the rapid growth of Carrier Ethernet services, many of these providers see such exchanges as a way to drive revenue while keeping up-front per-port charges low.
The CENX model is a “true exchange,” Intellifiber VP of sales Gabe Venturi told VON/xchange. “Initiation is essentially free, and once you start using the exchange, there’s lots of activity and they get revenue that way.”
If that model proves workable, Venturi added, “you’ll see the rest of the guys adopting it, because they realize that’s where it’s going.”
