11/7/2006 -- Worldwide sales of Metro Ethernet equipment are surging -- and they ain't about to stop any time soon.

Spurred in part by runaway demand for carrier Ethernet switches and routers, Metro Ethernet sales will explode over the next three years, jumping from just under $5 billion in 2005 to more than $15 billion in 2009.

That's the upshot of new research from market watcher Infonetics, which projects that Metro Ethernet equipment sales will accumulate $49.6 billion over the five-year period between 2005 and 2009.

"Ethernet has almost universal appeal to carriers and their customers because it helps lower their telecom costs," said Infonetics principal analyst Michael Howard in a prepared release. "The two most popular types of Ethernet equipment are Ethernet over copper and cable and carrier-class Ethernet switches and routers, which together will make up over two-thirds of the overall metro Ethernet market by 2009."

Elsewhere, Howard says, Ethernet access devices (EADs) are another fast-growing segment, potentially generating about $685 million in revenue by 2009.

Last year, worldwide sales of carrier Ethernet switches and routers hit $2.1 billion; Infonetics expects this total to more than double (to $4.6 billion) by 2009. Infonetics also projects that metro Ethernet port shipments will skyrocket over the next few years, increasing more than 700 percent between 2005 and 2009. Of these, the majority will be VDSL copper ports and EPON ports. -- Stephen Swoyer