Broadview Networks' expansion of its Ethernet over Copper (EoC) service across its Northeast metro footprint shows again that copper, while certainly a legacy technology, still has plenty to offer as a near-term Ethernet delivery strategy for competitive providers that can't make a business case for fiber.
Business customers can either bundle Broadview's EoC service with its FrontLine MPLS, SIP Trunking and OfficeSuite service or as a standalone ZOOM Internet access service. Delivered over Actelis' EoC gear, SMB customers can choose symmetrical speeds that can scale as low as 3 Mbps and up to 30 Mbps.
Even though fiber is the optimal solution for Ethernet, the reality is that "last mile" fiber reaches only 22.9 percent of U.S. business sites, meaning that fiber-based Ethernet services are typically out of reach for most SMB customers. For many CLECs, providing EoC services has been either a strategy to augment their fiber-based offerings or, in the case of Broadview, a more cost effective near-term strategy to deliver Ethernet services to a market that remains underserved by incumbent carrier fiber-based offerings.
Even though there have not been any reports of service impacts, the CLEC's ability to gain access to copper facilities has become a controversial issue in recent years as many ILECs have begun to retire copper lines in favor of fiber. And while other CLECs such as CBeyond want access to ILEC fiber, for Broadview EoC will continue to address a sweet spot of SMBs that can't afford the jump to a DS-3 service or even another T1 circut, but desire the QoS/CoS attributes that DSL and cable modem service lack.
For more:
- see the release here
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