GTT is confident as AT&T and Verizon get more involved in the media space via acquisitions of Time Warner and Yahoo, the service provider can eat away at the telcos' share in the multinational-corporation (MNC) business services market.
The service provider is on track to reach its $1 billion revenue goal in five years. In order to reach that goal, GTT will look for ways to provide and enhance its ever-growing set of cloud-based networking services to multinational businesses.
Rick Calder, CEO of GTT, told FierceTelecom that AT&T and Verizon have not seen real competition in the MNC market. “I think the large incumbents feel like that’s a business that is hard for anyone else to do so they think they own it,” Calder said. “We say we’re here and are the challenger and take share here.”
Besides focusing more on media, traditional telcos are today focusing more of their efforts on winning small businesses back from cable.
This is a trend that’s been seen at not only the largest telcos like Verizon, but also with smaller telcos such as Cincinnati Bell.
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Leveraging their hybrid fiber coax (HFC) networks, cable companies have been able to offer SMBs much higher internet speeds that they bundle with voice and other support services.
Verizon told investors in November that by rolling out FiOS in cities like Boston, the telco could gain further share with SMBs by offering higher speeds not possible on its existing copper network.
Cincinnati Bell, likewise, told investors during the recent UBS event that it is winning back SMBs where it has deployed fiber as part of its Fioptics build.
Calder said that as telcos focus more on winning back SMBs, it gives GTT and other competitors a chance to win larger business accounts. “If anything, the incumbent telcos are fighting the rear guard action in SMB against the cable companies,” Calder said. “They are trying to beef that up and focus on where they own their wireline and that leaves this nice exposed area that we’re attacking.”
Proof of GTT’s growing influence in the MNC market trend came in late 2015 when GTT was asked to participate in the U.S. Department of Defense's DISA (Defense Information Systems Agency) services contract to compete for contracts worth up to $4.3 billion.
The new contract is focused on providing telecom network solutions and services that support the transmission requirements of DISA's enterprise-level infrastructure.