XO Holdings (news, filings) is revamping its metro network capabilities by bringing in packet-optical gear from the Swedish vendor Transmode. XO was looking to scale capacity on its national metro footprint more cost effectively.
Transmode’s TM-Series will give them a WDM platform capable of 80x100G, although initial deployments will be at 10G of course. It will support both nextgen Ethernet solutions and legacy SONET services. XO has about 3,300 on-net buildings hooked up by 9,000+ metro route miles across several dozen markets. It’s a nice contract win for Transmode, with a 5 year lifespan starting immediately.
XO has been in reorganization mode since last fall, and has been relatively quiet on the PR front. Getting more out of their metro footprint has been a goal I’ve hoped they would pursue with greater enthusiasm, and so this announcement is welcome. I’m curious to see just what they’ll be up to this summer.
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Categories: Metro fiber · Telecom Equipment
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Rob –
I’d be curious to know how many metro vendors this now makes with the recent introduction of Transmode. By my estimate its 5 (Adtran, Ciena, Cisco, Infinera & Transmode). It might be more but thats all i can determine from the press release archives over the last 18 months or so.
The reason I point this out is the introduction of yet another vendor can mean back office operational support challenges for integration into systems as well as for ongoing support of customer network operational continuity from the metro service offering point of view. I have to question the strategic nature of such a move given the challenges XO’s had from perceived network reliability perspective if these are not motivated by cost savings perspective.
From an outside perspective it would appear this is the most voir dire move yet on what is to come.
They also use Huawei