Tellabs pushes carrier-class networks for feds

Tellabs has launched Tellabs Government Systems to address what the company sees as an emerging market need: carrier-class networks for agencies.The company, based in Naperville, Ill., has had a federal presence for several years but has now established a 20-person division in Ashburn, Va., including sales and engineering staff, dedicated to federal agencies."The networks are no longer capable to support the requirements," said Joseph Shilgalis, vice president of Tellabs Government Systems.The demand isn't yet universal among agencies, but Tellabs believes it will continue to expand, said Stephen McCarthy, executive vice president for global customer support and service at the firm. "Where downtime is most unacceptable, those are the agencies that will put together carrier-class networks first," he said.FedSources Inc. released a white paper today that Tellabs commissioned, in which its researchers examined the network needs of agencies and found the same demands that Tellabs perceives.“This was a most interesting hypothesis from the start because it challenged a prevailing belief that government telecom customers should ‘think and act’ like enterprises,” said Ray Bjorklund, senior vice president and chief knowledge officer at the firm, in a written statement. “By the end of the project, the evidence clearly showed that many government telecom networks have a scale and complexity that cannot be adequately addressed by enterprise-grade equipment.”Carrier-class refers to networks with the power and reliability of those used by major telecommunications carriers. Characteristics include: