Carrier Ethernet market worth $17 billion in 2008

From the ‘Ethernet everywhere‘ files:

Ethernet continued to make inroads into carrier networks during 2008. According to a new report from Infonetics Research, service providers spent $17 billion in 2008 on Carrier Ethernet equipment.

Infonetics forecasts that growth in Carrier Ethernet will continue to increase for the next five years. By 2013, Infonetics is projecting the Carrier Ethernet equipment market to be worth $32 billion.

There are a few factors driving demand for Carrier Ethernet, among them is the continuing demand on service provider networks and the need to converge services onto all IP Ethernet based networks for management and cost consilidation reasons.

“The economic downturn favors carrier Ethernet technologies and products, as they are a less expensive alternative to legacy equipment,” Michael Howard, Principal Analyst – Optical, Routing, Switching, and Ethernet at Infonetics said in a statement. “In fact, service provider investment in carrier Ethernet equipment is growing faster than overall telecom capex. Carrier Ethernet is one of the key technologies globally integral to IP next gen network transformation projects pushing the move from TDM to packet based networks.”