Vertical: U.S. Business Ethernet rises up

Business Ethernet service may have yet to be a mass market offering, but it's hard to not notice that enterprises' demand for the service is driving both incumbent and competitive players to up their game.

According to Vertical Systems Group's 2009 U.S. Business Ethernet Leaderboard, nine service providers that included both incumbent and competitive providers rose to the top of the business Ethernet heap: AT&T, Verizon, tw telecom, Cox, Qwest, XO, Time Warner Cable and Level 3. To gain a spot on Vertical's Leaderboard, the service provider had to hold four percent or more of the U.S. market based on retail port installations by the end of 2009.

Once again, AT&T led the group with fellow RBOC Verizon not far behind. Separately, Verizon and AT&T held the third and fourth spot on Vertical's Global Business Ethernet Leaderboard.   

Outside of the RBOCs, one of the trends that continued in the competitive segment of the U.S. Ethernet market in 2009 was the growing presence of cable MSOs. Leading the charge for cable MSOs delivering Ethernet was Cox, which has set an aggressive sales target of $2 billion for its Cox Business unit. It is focusing greater attention on targeting larger business segments such as healthcare and wireless backhaul.    

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