LONDON, March 17 /PRNewswire/ --

- Truly global business networking on show at EMEA's premier Carrier Ethernet event

Businesses under pressure to upgrade their communications within limited budgets will enjoy a unique opportunity at Ethernet Expo: Europe 2009, May 13-14 at ExCel Conference Centre in London. For the first time in a public demonstration, attendees will see globally interconnected Carrier Ethernet services delivering high-bandwidth business applications directly from the show floor to sites around the world. At the same time, the Vendor Showcase will present a closeup view of the latest technology and customer premises equipment enabling the demonstration and available now for enhanced enterprise communications.

Bob Mandeville, President and Founder of Iometrix, the company organizing the demonstration, explains: There are a lot of MEF14-certified Carrier Ethernet services now available, and economic pressures are accelerating the uptake of these more flexible, scalable, and business-enhancing services. But some people still see them as individual solutions, and cling to ATM or Frame Relay for their global reach. What we are showing is just how simply MEF14-certified service offerings can be chained together - even from different providers - to create a global interconnected service that you can still rely on to perform to MEF14 standards. In one demo we will span the globe - from London to USA to Asia and back again in a single interconnected broadband network. You see the real-time demo on our big screen, then stroll over to the Vendor Showcase to get the detailed business case, how the services are delivered to your organization, and how you benefit.

Chaired by Stan Hubbard, Senior Analyst at Heavy Reading, Ethernet Expo: Europe 2009 is the premier event covering the hot topic of Carrier Ethernet network technologies and services in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA). In addition to providing a superb networking opportunity for service providers, equipment manufacturers, and enterprise MIS/IT decision makers, this year's Ethernet Expo is the first to be open to all interested European network/telecom press and media.

Industry players have made tremendous progress over the last several years in delivering on Carrier Ethernet's promise of lowering communications costs and unleashing affordable bandwidth and tailored service offerings that help drive enterprise productivity, says Hubbard. We're going to turn a spotlight on the success stories at this year's Expo.

The Ethernet Expo conference and exhibition is designed to inform enterprises and service providers on which next-generation services and applications to deploy, and what infrastructure will help them do this in the most cost-effective and productive manner. This year's conference program assembles dozens of experts from the service provider, supplier, and analyst communities to explore the hottest trends and paint a roadmap for where Ethernet is likely to take us through the rest of this decade. Ethernet Expo: Europe 2009 is the eighth Ethernet Expo organized by Light Reading, whose ongoing mission is to provide the most comprehensive, informative coverage of the Ethernet revolution.

Current participating service providers include: BT, KPN, Masergy, ntl:Telewest, AboveNet, Reliance GlobalCom, Tata Communications, Telefonica, Verizon Business, and XO Communications. Early equipment manufacturer sponsors for the Expo include: Adva, Alcatel-Lucent, Anda Networks, Canoga Perkins, CreaNORD, Exfo, Fluke Networks, IMC Networks, JDSU, Matisse, Nexcomm, Omnitron, Overture, Spirent, Transition Networks, and Transmode.

Ethernet is, without a doubt, one of the most important communications technologies developed in the last 30+ years, explains Joe Braue, Group Director of Light Reading. Carrier Ethernet is rapidly becoming the technology of choice for controlling network communications costs, consolidating services onto a common infrastructure, and enabling more tailored services for consumers, enterprises, and operators. For very practical reasons the Carrier Ethernet market continues to gain ground despite the economic down-turn.

The single most important message of this Global Interconnect Demo is to show Carrier Ethernet service providers' readiness to interconnect and rapidly expand their service offerings in response to pressing enterprise demand for Ethernet services with a worldwide footprint, says Hubbard.

Additional information about Light Reading's Europe Ethernet: Expo 2009 can be found at: www.ethernetexpoeurope.com. Registration for press and analysts is free.

About Light Reading

Founded in 2000, Light Reading (www.lightreading.com) is the leading online media, research, and focused event company serving the US$3 trillion worldwide communications market. Lightreading.com is the ultimate source for technology and financial analysis of the communications industry, leading the media sector in terms of traffic, content, and reputation. Light Reading's research arms, Heavy Reading and Pyramid Research, provide the most comprehensive communications research, market data, and technology analysis in close to 100 markets around the world. Light Reading produces nearly 20 targeted communications events including TelcoTV, Ethernet Expo New York and Ethernet Expo London, The Tower Summit @ CTIA, and Optical Expo, as well as focused one-day events tailored for cable, mobile, and wireline executives. Light Reading was acquired by United Business Media in August 2005 and operates as a unit of TechWeb.

About TechWeb

TechWeb (http://techweb.com/aboutus), the global leader in business technology media, is an innovative business focused on serving the needs of technology decision-makers and marketers worldwide. TechWeb produces the most respected and consumed media brands in the business technology market. Today, more than 13.3 million* business technology professionals actively engage in our communities created around our global face-to-face events, Interop, Web 2.0, Black Hat, and VoiceCon; online resources such as the TechWeb Network, Light Reading, Intelligent Enterprise, InformationWeek.com, bMighty.com, and The Financial Technology Network; and the market leading, award-winning InformationWeek, TechNet Magazine, MSDN Magazine, and Wall Street Technology magazines. TechWeb also provides end-to-end services including next-generation performance marketing, integrated media, research, and analyst services. TechWeb is a division of United Business Media, a global provider of news distribution and specialist information services with a market capitalization of more than US$2.5 billion.

*13.3 million business decision-makers: based on number of monthly connections

About United Business Media Limited

UBM (UBM.L) focuses on two principal activities: worldwide information distribution, targeting and monitoring; and, the development and monetisation of B2B communities and markets. UBM's businesses inform markets and serve professional commercial communities - from doctors to game developers, from journalists to jewelry traders, from farmers to pharmacists - with integrated events, online, print and business information products. Our 6,500 staff in more than 30 countries are organised into specialist teams that serve these communities, bringing buyers and sellers together, helping them to do business and their markets to work effectively and efficiently. For more information, go to http://www.unitedbusinessmedia.com

Contact: Amy Averbook Director of Corporate Marketing Light Reading averbook@lightreading.com +1-212-925-0020 x112

Amy Averbook, Director of Corporate Marketing, Light Reading, +1-212-925-0020 x112, averbook@lightreading.com