Behind AT&T’s Switched Ethernet Over U-verse Launch

AT&T announced that it was doubling its switched Ethernet service footprint -- a goal the company was able to achieve by making switched Ethernet available over its Gigabit Passive Optical Networks (GPON)-based U-verse infrastructure. A company spokesperson said that the service will be available at six asymmetrical speeds ranging between 3 Mbps downstream/ 1 Mbps upstream and 45 Mbps/ 6 Mbps, as well as two symmetrical speeds of 2 Mbps or 4 Mbps bi-directionally. The switched Ethernet service will be available everywhere AT&T offers U-verse, the spokesperson said.

Although it is quite common for smaller network operators to offer business and residential data services over GPON infrastructure, larger carriers traditionally have kept those networks separate -- within the access network, at least. As AT&T’s announcement illustrates, however, the larger carriers could have a lot to gain by rethinking that approach. At higher speeds in particular, traditional methods of delivering switched Ethernet may require running a dedicated fiber from the customer premises to the central office. But by leveraging GPON infrastructure, a carrier may be able to minimize the amount of fiber it must deploy to connect a business customer -- even for some relatively high-bandwidth services.