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Bucking downward trends seen in other segments of telecommunications and IT, service providers are seeing more and more demand for broadband services, the head of a Centennial, Col.-based provider of metro optical access solutions told TMCnet in an interview.

 

According to Jim Nevelle, CEO of Sorrento Networks, Inc. – a company that offers an edge-to-regional CWDM, DWDM and ROADM (News - Alert) product portfolio to carriers and enterprises – one of the major bright spots of this down economy has been the resiliency of broadband services.

 

During an interview with TMC President Rich Tehrani (News - Alert) (printed in full below), Nevelle also said the he sees the broadband delivery market as the segment with the strongest potential.

 

“Gigabit Ethernet delivery continues to grow as the need for corporate networks infrastructure swells, IPTV services expand and data center-related connectivity increases,” Nevelle told Tehrani.

 

Nevelle – who is speaking during ITEXPO West 2009 in a session called “Deploying IPTV” – also said that he thinks broadband stimulus is helping all equipment providers by enabling service providers to think about providing broadband services in areas that would normally be overlooked.

 

Their full exchange follows.

 

 

Jim Nevelle (pictured left): The current economic crisis has taught many of us in the optics business that the demand for broadband services is a very resilient. Networks providing Gigabit Ethernet services are still being built and proposal generation by carriers to their customers is higher now than over a year ago. In fact, many of our service provider customers have seen the demand for broadband steadily increase over the past 18 months.

 

 

JN: Companies should continue to reinvest during downtimes so they can reap the benefits when the entire market comes back even stronger. In the first half of 2009, Sorrento Networks launched its Optical Ethernet Transport platform, which has been very successful for us in the Gigabit Ethernet delivery space. All of our major customers either have already standardized on the OET or have lab time set up for it.

 

In the second half of 2009, we will continue to invest in our industry-leading storage area network interface suite, which is being heavily deployed worldwide in data center applications. In conjunction with our SAN interfaces, we will also announce our new encryption certifications and system security enhancements. As 2009 progresses, we plan to roll out a new amplifier and filter architectures for the new network deployments we are experiencing.

 

 

JN: From where Sorrento sits, we see the broadband delivery market as the segment with the strongest potential. Gigabit Ethernet delivery continues to grow as the need for corporate networks infrastructure swells, IPTV services expand and data center-related connectivity increases.

 

 

JN: Anyone in corporate America will attest to the notion that WiFi is almost a necessity now to function day to day due to email and the other online applications that drive our lives. As such, WiFi networks will continue to grow to meet that demand. 

 

 

JN: We at Sorrento see North America as a considerable opportunity due to our very large embedded base here. But, Europe and Africa will be the main growth drivers for us because of the need to expand broadband offerings to regions that have few existing deployments.

 

 

JN: President Obama’s Broadband Stimulus Package is helping all equipment providers by enabling service providers to think about providing broadband services in areas that would normally be overlooked. Most of our customers are submitting proposals in some form for a piece of the Stimulus Package. And, we are currently involved in analyzing network designs in U.S. regions where, in normal circumstances, it would not have provided a positive ROI to deploy wavelength division multiplexing technology. 

 

 

JN: I personally use the Apple iPhone and a Dell (News - Alert) computer for all my communication needs. To be honest, these two devices provide for all my needs.

 

 

JN: All of the new PDAs and smartphones have taught us that people want to be connected and are willing to pay for it. The broadband demand for these wireless devices is one of the driving forces prompting service providers to invest in their infrastructure.

 

 

JN: I will be talking about IPTV and triple play migration plans using wavelength division multiplexing technology. The target audience should be those who have triple play network deployment plans, but are trying to figure out how optimize the network on a budget. The presentation will cover the economics and benefits of WDM infrastructure in conjunction with triple play networks.

 

JN: Customers have been selecting Sorrento Networks’ WDM solutions for years due to the reliability and features we offer. Our customers’ networks require extreme service level uptimes, which is why they turn to Sorrento. Additionally, by providing numerous interfaces on a single platform, we are allowing our customers to deploy one platform for all of their applications. Management actually looks forward to approving the purchase of our products due to the high ROI we provide for their network deployments.