Spark “ahead of the pack” as high-speed Carrier Ethernet services target enterprise

Spark New Zealand has released new high-speed Carrier Ethernet services, and has received MEF CE 2.0 Certification for all of them - a first in New Zealand.

According to the telco, these new services expand the offerings available from Spark Wholesale and Spark Digital, in a bid to provide more choice for business, enterprise, government, and wholesale customers.

Carrier Ethernet connections are high-speed connections, with Spark New Zealand’s new range designed to offer a variety of options for management layers and speeds from 1Mbps up to 2Gbps.

The new products and their certification is being welcomed by Spark GM Wholesale, International and Product, Lindsay Cowley, who says it puts Spark New Zealand at the head of the pack and underlines their strategic goal of having New Zealand’s best data network.

“This is an independent seal of approval for these new high speed connections as well as for the Spark Network,” Cowley says.

“It means that our customers can have certainty of the quality of the product they’re buying.”

Cowley adds that all these new products have received the MEF CE 2.0 certification, a globally recognised standard given to the highest performing connections, providing more certified services than any other provider in New Zealand.

Spark New Zealand has received MEF 2.0 certification for E-Access (Access-EPL and Access-EVPL), E-Line (EPL and EVPL), E-LAN (EP-LAN and EVP-LAN), meaning the Carrier Ethernet services are run with high quality equipment and conform to global best practice, increasing their compatibility with international providers, their reliability, and their scalability.

The MEF is the driving force behind the $US80 plus billion global market for Carrier Ethernet services and technologies and the defining body for LSO standards that underpin emerging Third Network services with CE 2.0, SDN, and NFV.

An industry alliance consisting of 220+ member organisations based in 43 countries, the MEF operates through a collaborative framework of service providers, network solutions suppliers, and other stakeholders to achieve CE 2.0 and LSO development and globalisation objectives.

“MEF CE 2.0 certification is a highly challenging and significant accreditation to achieve and represents the gold standard of deployment for the marketplace,” adds Nan Chen, President of the MEF.

“We congratulate Spark New Zealand on such an impressive result across its full international Carrier Ethernet product range.”

Spark New Zealand’s new Carrier Ethernet platform is built on Spark New Zealand’s Optical Transport Network.

According to Cowley, connecting into the OTN gives New Zealand business, enterprise, and government organisations “seamless, ubiquitous connectivity” to more cities, exchanges, and data centres than any other provider in New Zealand, as well as a number of trans-Tasman points-of-presence.

“Underpinned by the OTN and backed up by MEF CE 2.0, Spark New Zealand’s new Carrier Ethernet services ensure a scalable, robust and future proofed service offering, suitable for a huge range of business needs,” Cowley adds.

“I’m confident that we’re leading the way in New Zealand.”