quipped with Gigabit Eth- ernet switches. In contrast, carriers now offer Gigabit Ethernet services to small and midsize organizations as well as large ones. These services start at speeds of 10Mbps and some can scale up to 10Gbps. In addition, Gigabit Ethernet is more widely avail- able because more central offices have been equipped to support it and fiber is more widely deployed to business customers. A newer, slower-speed Ethernet service that operates over existing copper cabling will also increase its prevalence. Ethernet over copper is capable of transmitting at 2Mbps to 100Mbps. To quote an anonymous car- rier employee: "I've heard 2010 referred to as the year of GigE; which is to say that I've seen extraordinary bandwidth demand." Broadband and Wide Area Network Services Bandwidth demand by all types of organizations has created the impetus for carri- ers to invest in gear that will meet this demand. Customers that previously used T1 ser- vice now have either multiple T1s or T3 services at their disposal. And organizations with T3 links are now upgrading to Gigabit Ethernet. Moreover, smaller organizations can order the slowest Ethernet service with the option to easily upgrade later. Carrier Gigabit Ethernet Offers Flexibility and Scalable Speeds Gigabit Ethernet is offered by carriers for accessing the Internet, Multi-Protocol Label Switching (MPLS) networks, and connections to other sites within cities. When used for accessing these networks, enterprises might use Ethernet over copper or Gigabit Ethernet at their headquarters. At remote sites, depending on the level of traffic at each site, T1 often is used. Organizations with many buildings within cities also use it for point-to-point private lines within the metropolitan area. These organizations include large hospi- tals, universities, and government offices that use GigE to transfer large files between sites. One example is the connection between hospitals and the facilities where patient records and imaging files are stored. It is also used for c