Alpheus Communications has enhanced its standing in the growing Ethernet over Copper (EoC) race by expanding its network presence 36 percent to serve 129,000 business locations in Southern Texas.
What's driving local businesses to migrate from TDM and T1 circuits to EoC is the lower price points and ease of deployment.
Today, Alpheus offers fiber-based Ethernet and EoC out of 123 local AT&T (NYSE: T) Central Offices (COs).
"We initially got into the business a few years ago and it really caught fire, particularly with the migration from TDM-based SONET to Ethernet," said Scott Widham, CEO of Alpheus, in an interview with FierceTelecom. "We've had an initiative here to grow our Ethernet-qualified locations."
In terms of EoC speed, the service provider sees the most popular speeds are 5-40 Mbps.
"I think 5-40 Mbps is our sweet spot," Widham said. "That's where we play best and that's where we don't run into problems offering a service that we can't deliver in terms of the speed."
He added that "the nice thing with EOC is that we can usually get these up pretty quickly" by establishing a network to network interconnection (NNI) agreement with other area incumbent telcos and CLECs.
Despite the growth in EoC, Alpheus continues to expand its on-net fiber footprint, which is connected to more than 300 central offices and POPs (points-of-presence).
Building off its growing Ethernet service base, the service provider plans to enhance its managed service offerings for business customers.
"The next step for us will be how do we play in the managed services environment, and that's what we're looking at right now," Widham said. "Is it the virtual data center, helping people be PCI compliant, and what are the managed security services that we could make money from?"
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