This development has really opened the floodgates for carrier Ethernet by extending it right across the enterprise rather than just large offices. For SMEs and branch offices, therefore, carrier Ethernet has a double appeal. On the one hand it at last created a coherent enterprise-wide network gaining fully from Ethernet's economies of scale, with the distinction between LAN and WAN remaining only for service management purposes, avoiding the previous costly protocol conversions. On the other hand, carrier Ethernet delivers much more affordable bandwidth, which is why it is being adopted for example by mobile operators for backhauling data from cellular towers. The age of ubiquitous Ethernet has truly arrived.