Groucho Marx once famously said he didn’t want to belong to any club that would accept him as a member. But, this little quip aside, most organizations strive to have a large and active member base, so when they reach a milestone in membership, it’s cause for celebration. And recently, the Metro Ethernet Forum (News - Alert) reached the 200 member mark.

The Metro Ethernet Forum is a global organization with a mission of accelerating the worldwide adoption of Carrier-class Ethernet networks and services. It develops Carrier Ethernet technical specifications and implementation agreements in order to provide interoperability and deployment of Carrier Ethernet worldwide.

The group has been in existence for 11 years, and announced its 200th member company last month. The MEF (News - Alert) has over 150 service providers and equipment vendors certified to Carrier Ethernet 1.0 and the total number of MEF Carrier Ethernet Certified Professionals has passed the 300 mark and is expected to triple in the next 12 months.

“It has been a great 12 months for the MEF,” said Nan Chen, president of the Metro Ethernet Forum. “Our growing, global membership base demonstrates the industry’s commitment to the globalization and success of standardized Carrier Ethernet Services. It also gives us the critical mass to pursue our goals aggressively, being a solid foundation for migration to our recently-announced CE 2.0 and CE 2.0 Certification flagship initiatives.” 

Other major developments at the MEF this year have involved demonstrations of Carrier Ethernet 2.0 services for private cloud environments and for use in mobile backhaul services. Carrier Ethernet 2.0 is a powerful and standardized new technology that has the potential to take telecommunications to the next level of capabilities and efficiencies. It should lead to an even more exciting year for the MEF!

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