Hatteras Networks this week announced it is expanding its Channel Provider Program in the independent telco, CLEC, IXC and incumbent carrier markets. Additionally, the company said it has signed an agreement with Micromuse to integrate its Netcool solution as a management element of its Ethernet platform.

The expansion of the channel program comes as Hatteras is seeing increased demand for all forms of Ethernet from across the industry, said Chris Cook, senior vice president of sales and marketing for Hatteras. At the same time, vendors are all battling to develop ways for carriers to differentiate a service that could quickly become a commodity.

“I don’t think there’s any argument that Ethernet is getting a lot of play,” Cook said. “T1s are a commodity-based service, but with Ethernet, the amount of bandwidth and our ability to offer [service level agreements] are going to differentiate.”

Part of the expansion of the channel partner program comes from increased demand among independents and CLECs, he added.

The addition of NetCool will increase the ease with which carriers can deploy and manage Ethernet services.

“They can now just click on the Hatteras library in the Micromuse interface,” Cook said.