Rogers Exec Calls for 100% Availability of Ethernet Services

Cable companies have a major opportunity to win enterprise business away from telcos, but need to interconnect their networks to provide national coverage and deliver higher-quality customer service, Terry Canning, senior vice president of Canada-based Rogers Business Solutions, says.

"Telcos were built on five-nines, but they stopped there," Canning said. "We have the opportunity to win huge shares of marketplace if we pursue 100. But we're not there yet." MSOs Can Outdo Telcos in Ethernet


The need for 100 percent availability is particularly important as more enterprises move critical applications into the cloud and rely on network connections into the cloud for those applications, he said.

Whether in actual fact any communications service can reach 100-percent availability, and still be profitable, is the issue.

The issue of national interconnects between major local cable companies is a related, but separate, issue. Where cable is disadvantaged, compared to telcos, is in going outside the typical regional footprint of a cable operator to serve national and multinational enterprises, he said. 


Rogers is developing network-to-network interfaces to interconnect with other cable operators, but more work is needed to develop a standard product set across the cable industry. That impediment also illustrates the issues faced by the cable industry. Unlike the telecom industry, which builds every network element and system for interconnection, cable operators traditionally have not needed to do so.

Cable also must overcome its reputation as a "best effort" service provider by delivering higher-quality customer service to its most important customers, Canning said.