Comcast Business announced today that over the coming weeks its Ethernet services would be available across six communities in Chittenden County, Vermont.
In an effort to support local businesses, office parks and industrial centers, Comcast said it made significant investments to extend its fiber network and expand the availability of its Ethernet services in the six communities. The six towns in Chittenden County feature a large number of the state’s businesses, ranging from snowboard manufacturers to global high technology.
“A key to attracting businesses and jobs to Vermont is ensuring we have world-class broadband connectivity to match our world-class quality of life,” said Vermont Governor Peter Shumlin. “Comcast’s expansion of its fiber network and new Ethernet services in Chittenden County represents just the sort of private investment, by multiple companies in areas throughout our state, which is bringing Vermont the quality Internet services we need to spur economic development. I very much appreciate Comcast’s continued focus on improving and expanding its service in Vermont.”
Comcast first launched its Ethernet services, which include point-to-point private line, point-to-multipoint virtual private line and a multipoint-to-multipoint network service, in 2011. By last year Comcast had the services available in most of its nationwide footprint.
Comcast’s Ethernet services are delivered over its all-IP network that spans 140,000 miles across 39 states and the District of Columbia, and serves 20 of the top 25 U.S. markets. Comcast’s network features a 100 Gbps backbone and an expanded local footprint through Ethernet over HFC. By using Ethernet-based technologies, business customers, including healthcare and school districts, can scale their bandwidth requirements for cloud computing, business continuity, business process automation, software-as-a-service (SaaS) and other applications.
Bandwidth is available up to 10 Gbps and can be remotely scaled in increments and offered in three different classes of service, and monitored full time from Comcast’s dedicated Network Operations Centers (NOCs).
Comcast was the first service provider in North America to offer Metro Ethernet Forum CE 2.0 certified Ethernet services and was also the first service provider to achieve all three of the previous CE 1.0 certifications (MEF 9, 14 and 18).
Ethernet services have been growing contributors to Comcast’s bottom line ever since they were launched. In its more recent fourth quarter, Comcast reported that business services revenue increased by 37 percent. On the fourth-quarter conference call, Comcast executives said the company planned to make further strides into the medium-business sector with its Ethernet services.
