Vertical Systems Group released its U.S. Business Ethernet Leaderboard results for last year, and while AT&T and Verizon still hold down the top two rungs, Level 3 moved up two spots ahead of XO and Time Warner Cable.
In rank order based on port share were AT&T, Verizon, tw telecom, CenturyLink, Cox, Level 3, XO and Time Warner Cable. Port shares were calculated using the base of enterprise installations of Ethernet services, plus input from Vertical’s independent surveys of Ethernet providers. The Leaderboard threshold is 4 percent or more of billable port installations.
“The U.S. market for retail Ethernet ports rose 24 percent in 2012. The year was characterized by major backbone upgrades, new market rollouts, price wars and channel expansion. Ethernet access to IP VPNs and cloud connectivity were the fastest-growing applications,” said Rick Malone, principal at Vertical Systems Group. “AT&T and Verizon remain the top two providers, but not without challenges. AT&T experienced slower overall growth in Ethernet – especially in the second half of the year – and derived more Ethernet sales from wholesale partners. Verizon remained number two on our Leaderboard despite a challenging fourth quarter, which resulted in loss of market share.”
Other providers selling Ethernet services in the U.S. were segmented into two tiers as measured by port share. The first, or “Challenge Tier,” for 2012 included the following eight companies (in alphabetical order): Charter Business, Cogent, Comcast Business, Integra, Lightpath, Reliance Globalcom, Windstream (includes Paetec) and Zayo Group (includes AboveNet).
The second, or “Market Player,” tier covered other providers offering Ethernet services in the U.S. The Market Player tier included the following companies (in alphabetical order): Alpheus Communications, American Telesis, Bright House Networks, BT Global, Cincinnati Bell, Consolidated Communications, EarthLink Business, Expedient, FairPoint, FiberLight, Fibertech, Frontier, Hawaiian Telecom, IP Networks, Lightower, LS Networks, Lumos Networks, Masergy, Megapath, NTT America, Orange Business, Sidera Networks, Spirit, Sprint, Suddenlink, TDS, US Signal, Virtela and others.
