InformationWeek

Freddie Mac, which buys mortgages and then packages and resells them, is using MetroMedia Fiber Networks' WaveChannel service. This employs Nortel Networks' Optera dense wavelength-division multiplexing (DWDM) equipment to connect sites in a region using optical fibers via direct lines or by linking them on a ring.

Freddie Mac's 100-Mbps metro-area network in Washington and northern Virginia was running close to capacity, and the company sought a private network service that could be leased on a monthly basis. The service had to be flexible and provide nearly limitless bandwidth to support new business apps and, eventually, E-commerce.

"With DWDM, we can run separate networks over separate wavelengths in one fiber and can have MetroMedia turn on additional ones in one or two days, as opposed to four to six weeks," says John Toye, manager of network engineering at Freddie Mac. "We need these capabilities to enhance our business."

Once all seven offices and network operations centers are linked to a 52-mile fiber ring later this year, Toye hopes to widely offer Loan Prospector, a point-of-sale mortgage underwriting application, deploy video training and executive meeting applications, and carry Gigabit Ethernet LAN traffic.

At the core of the MetroMedia service is DWDM, which was originally developed for long-distance phone companies; it lets a single strand of fiber carry individual streams of voice, data, or video information on separate wavelengths, or colors. Freddie Mac is among the first large companies to use DWDM technology, says Tom McElgunn, a senior research analyst at Stratecast Partners. "I've yet to see a service like this offered by any other carrier," he says.