To: bill c. who wrote (2049 ) 4/26/1998 2:56:00 PM From: pat mudge Read Replies (2) | Respond to
But Bell Atlantic still is in the early stages of serious deployment. Neither vendor has completed testing--Lucent is on its way to the lab, and Ciena is preparing to go to field trials. . . . BellSouth's stance falls somewhere between Bell Atlantic and SBC. BellSouth has used DWDM in its corporate network for several years but is compiling an RFP to be issued in June or July for broader deployment. The company has been lab-testing one vendor's equipment to in preparation for issuing the RFP, said Ken Cook, BellSouth's infrastructure planning group manager. "It's a technology evaluation as opposed to a product evaluation," he said. Still, BellSouth plans to move quickly once the RFP is issued. "It's highly possible we could see deployments this year," said John Spencer, transport systems engineering manager for BellSouth. "Much depends on how the responses to the RFP look. . . . " "Carriers are ambiguous about how they want to use [DWDM]," said Tim Krause, senior business development director for Alcatel's optical networks division. His company has received everything from requests for information to requests for quotations from every incumbent local exchange carrier and most major competitive LECs, he said. "The real interest in the technology is what it's going to do in large metro deployments," he said. cambriansys.com
