MegaPath among largest Ethernet over Copper players

Communications network provider MegaPath Corp.'s aggressive Ethernet over Copper buildout has put the carrier among the nation's largest providers of EoC service, reaching over 19 major markets, the company said in a statement.

San Jose, Calif.-based MegaPath currently offers EoC services in major, high-profile markets, including Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Dallas, Miami, San Francisco and the District of Columbia, delivering symmetrical speeds from 2 to 45 Mbps.

In the past year, MegaPath has aggressively expanded its EoC footprint. In September, it announced it would provide the service on a nationwide basis.

Since January, the company had expanded its service into another 200 Central Offices (COs). As of April 1, the service provider had deployed EoC to 501 COs, enabling it to offer the service in 37 markets. MegaPath is now on track to build out the rest of the network to provide coverage in 47 geographic markets by June, the company statement said. 

Having an extended EoC footprint has implications for the service provider's retail and wholesale divisions.

On the retail side, EoC continues to address the existing fiber gap that exists for the majority of U.S. businesses. While service providers have been expanding their fiber footprints, the reality is, according to Vertical Systems Group, fiber only reaches 31.8 percent of U.S. commercial buildings, leaving over 68.2 of buildings with little options than to purchase more costly T1 circuits.

With a broad EoC footprint in hand, MegaPath's retail group can better respond to more SMBs and even larger business customers that want higher speed services than provided on a T1 circuit yet can't be reached with fiber.

Likewise, it can help MegalPath reach wholesale customers who may have been reluctant to purchase EoC service because it was only available in a few key markets.

"We can now respond to wholesale customers that have national needs to serve their multi-site business customers," David Williams, senior vice president of MegaPath Wholesale, said in an interview with FierceTelecom during this week's COMPTEL PLUS trade show in San Francisco.

For more:
- see the release

Special report: Wholesale provider leaders to watch in 2012

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