Genuity Delivers New Network
Company Rolls Out First All-Fiber Network
Dec 05, 2000, 10:00 AM ET
By Kristen Rosen
Network services provider Genuity (GENU) announced today that it has come out
with the industry’s first "all–optical network segment."
Using Juniper Networks' (JNPR) routers and Nortel Networks’ (NT) OP Tera
ultra–long–reach optics, Genuity has taken one segment of its network – the
portion between Washington D.C. and Atlanta – and built out what the company
believes is the highest–speed networking performance today. By using all–optical
Juniper and Nortel components, information will be able to travel from D.C.
directly to Atlanta, and vice–versa, without regenerating the signal – which will
make data transfer a whole lot faster.
If all goes well, this test segment – which is currently running at 10 gigabytes per
second – will most likely be extended to the rest of Genuity’s third–generation
network.
"This first–of–its–kind network deployment illustrates our position as a technology
leader in this market," said Joe Farina, COO of Genuity. Mr. Farina added that if
this high–speed segment is successful, not only will the company be able to offer
high–speed and larger bandwidth services to companies, Genuity too will benefit
from significant cost advantages.
By building this segment of the network, Genuity is also transitioning from the
slower Internet Protocol/SONET ring–based network architecture to the next
generation in moving information using photonics and a mesh–based network,
also known as DWDM or Dense Wave Division Multiplexing. This new type of
network, based on a completely optical and photonic signal, is considered by
many to be much cheaper than the SONET ring network used by the industry
until recently.
Genuity, a company providing network services and virtual private networks to an
impressive client list including America Online (AOL) and Yahoo! (YHOO), and
roughly 7,000 other businesses, is pressing forward to create the network with
the highest speed and the largest bandwidth so that it can stay in sync. with
competitors like AT&T (T) and WorldCom (WCOM) – because, at the end of the
day, companies are looking for the quickest connection with the largest amount
of bandwidth at the cheapest price, and Genuity is a much smaller company than
its network servicing counterparts.
This all–optical network segment might be just the push that Genuity needs to
set it rolling again. In the past six months the company’s stock price has
plummeted from 11 1/4 and is currently trading at 4 13/32.
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