With the demand for Ethernet services growing, network operators are increasingly looking to add them to their service-offering portfolios. Because the services are still relatively new in their life cycle, however, there are a number of questions and challenges that service providers will face before they can successfully roll the services out to their customer base.

This session will leverage the real-world experiences of a variety of service providers to help attendees better understand what is involved with and required for a successful deployment of Ethernet services. Attendees will leave the session better armed to make the critical decisions they will face as they enter this burgeoning market segment.

Panelists will be asked to describe in detail their experiences deploying Ethernet services:

• Customer demand
• Business case/reason why they rolled out Ethernet services
• Biggest challenges faced/how solved
• Options they evaluated
• Overview of benefits to themselves and their customers

Umesh Kukreja Director of Marketing Atrica

Mr. Kukreja has 15 years of experience in the marketing and management of telecommunications and data communications products and services. He has particular expertise in assisting global service providers with the development of differentiated Ethernet service offerings for their target vertical markets. Prior to joining Atrica, Mr. Kukreja was director of product marketing for Metera Networks, where he led the product marketing team in the development of an integrated IP/MPLS optical services platform for metro networks.

Brandon Grant Research and Development TELUS Communications

Mr. Grant's career with TELUS began in 2003 when he joined the TELUS TV team in Edmonton, working on the launch of TELUS' entertainment services. Today, as a lab manager working in the Vancouver TELUS Development Lab, he is responsible for managing the facility where development and testing takes place. Before joining TELUS, he served in the Canadian Air Force, where he obtained his pilot's license. He is currently pursuing a Bachelor of Science in business administration from the University of Phoenix.

Michael Howard Principal Analyst and Co-Founder Infonetics Research

Mr. Howard is recognized worldwide as one of the industry's leading experts in emerging markets, service provider network market trends, and user buying patterns. He started working on operating systems and programming language compilers for ARPANET, which later became the Internet, and then created network accounting at Tymshare/Tymnet in the 1970s. He led the First Interstate Bank project that developed the world's first pre-Internet in-home banking system. Mr. Howard founded Infonetics Research in 1990, and today he focuses on optical technologies from the service provider edge to the core, metro Ethernet, and access networks.

Paulo Polonio Manager Nokia Siemens Network

Mr. Polonio leads a group of experts deploying connectivity solutions for operators in Latin America. He has eight years of experience in the telecommunications market, with participation in the design and deployment of data networks with different technologies and scenarios.