A non-profit group that advocates the adoption of Carrier Ethernet, a high level of network technology that is increasingly becoming popular in the global market, has just given its stamp of approval to Globe Telecom’s own offering.

Metro Ethernet Forum (MEF), an organization of the world’s top service providers and major equipment vendors, recently certified Globe’s Carrier Ethernet solution as conforming to MEF 9 service-provider specifications – a first in the Philippine telecommunications industry.

A statement issued by the Ayala-owned carrier said MEF 9 checked whether Globe’s Ethernet Line, Ethernet Virtual Private Line, and Ethernet LAN Ethernet services conformed to the MEF’s own standards at what is called the UNI, or User Network Interface.

The testing process itself, which was conducted by the test laboratory Iometrix, consisted of a lab test, where the service provider builds out a service infrastructure in a lab for initial verification, and a field test, where more tests were performed on production circuits.

Carrier Ethernet’s story begins with the humble Ethernet itself, which was invented by Robert Metcalfe in 1975. Ethernet is a time-honored LAN standard that became popular – and has remained popular over the years – thanks to its ubiquitous interface, specifications up to 10Gbps, low cost, and scalability up to 1Gbps at increments as small as 1Mbps without requiring interface changes.

In order to adapt these enduring strengths to suit their needs, telecommunications companies recently decided to come up with Carrier Ethernet.

Clients adopt Carrier Ethernet for such applications as Internet access, site-to-site access, data center and server consolidation, and business continuity or disaster recovery.

The global market has been responding very positively to Carrier Ethernet. The market for business Ethernet services has been projected to increase to nearly $39 billion by 2013, and strong enterprise customer demand for these services is expected for the next five years.

Revenue from each of the regional Carrier Ethernet market segments (the US, Asia Pacific, EMEA, and the rest of the world) has been found to be growing twice as fast as that of competing technologies.

Globe Business has been making Carrier Ethernet services available since 2000, delivering these services through its high-speed BAX (Broadband Access Service) network.

The company has also made significant investments in the IP-Converged Optical Network (ICON) upgrade and other aspects of its network infrastructure. ICON is the Philippines’ first and only pure IP MPLS (Internet Protocol–Multi Protocol Label Switching) network.