inue to hold the opinion that the growth of Ethernet-and IP-based packet data services will proceed unabated and that data services will soon comprise the majority of all telecommunications traffic. This shift in service mix can be attributed to an increase in the number of data connections (specifically for Internet/intranet access) and to a higher average bandwidth requirement for data applications. In the cor- porate landscape, these drivers translate into a rapidly accelerating demand for native Ethernet transport services over metropolitan area net- works (MANs) and wide area networks (WANs). The de facto situation for many carriers is that their optical networks are generally optimized for voice transport over time-division multiplexing (TDM) channels. Although these networks can provide viable solutions in lower-end data transport applications, they are not ideal environments where packet data dominates the service mix; statistical TDM (STDM) (packet) methodologies may be better suited. Very rarely can a single technology meet every attribute for every ser- vice. Therefore, it is important for service providers to select which technol- ogy combination best fits their business models, in both the immediate- and long-term planning cycle. High-end service providers such as InfoPort Com- munications Group have multiarchitecture, multitechnology, multiservice, and multi-quality of service (QoS) networks. Equipment vendors have also realized that no single technology can do it all and have begun to combine technologies into network elements that enable service providers to easily add new services. Next-generation SONET/Synchronous Digital Hierarchy (SDH) systems typically go in this direction. It is possible that next-generation SONET may enjoy easier market pen- etration than Ethernet-based technologies. Recently, it was observed that the competitive landscape of telecommunications in the United States has shrunk significantly with four major players that have become the center of the world. ² The implications 