On Fri, 26 Mar 2010, Rick Ernst wrote:
I've noticed over the last 3 years or so that TDM, specifically T-1, access
and transport has been in a steady decline. Customers are moving to FTTH
and cable, or going WiMAX and Metro-Ethernet. Ethernet seems to have taken
an even bigger bite out of DS-3. The bigger pipes seem to favor ethernet. A
recent upgrade from OC-3 to GigE transport actually saved us a large chunk
of money.
I'm wondering if others are seeing the same behavior, if it's
market-dependant, or if I'm just imagining things. I'm working on building
new infrastructure and my current thoughts are to minimize my TDM
footprint. It would be useful to get a better feel if this is an overall
trend or something local.
I tend to think this is market dependent. In major population centers,
TDM service may well be on the decline, but I'd suspect that Ethernet
based services have a much lower penetration in areas with lower
population densities.
I don't see TDM going away entirely any time soon because it still comes
in handy for things like out-of-band management, etc, plus nowadays there
is lots of TDM gear on the secondary market that can be picked up
dirt-cheap.
jms