NBN Co signs up to Metro Ethernet Forum

NBN Co has joined the Metro Ethernet Forum (MEF), a global industry alliance that aims to standardise wholesale carrier Ethernet services.

This week, it joined Australian telcos Telstra and Uecomm on the global forum that promotes 26 standards, including some ratified by the IEEE.

According to MEF COO Kevn Vahon, the alliance currently comprises 170 vendors and 68 service providers, including "virtually every Layer 1 provider in the world".

Standardisation would be as important for NBN Co as it was for Telstra, he said, due to the carriers' commitment to provide connectivity to other service providers.

"Ethernet is a big part of the strategy for NBN ... internationally, it's hard to sell services without standards," he said.

Besides technical specifications, MEF's standards provide end-to-end guidelines for ordering, billing, service provision and service assurance.

"Buying an Ethernet service is challenging because it's flexible," Vahon said. "The big issue is interconnect, and it's not just specifications; it's service.

"[Carriers] need to ensure that their wholesale service is a standardised service," he said.

NBN Co has not yet responded to iTnews' request for comment.