* Service providers jostle for position in business Ethernet market
The top providers of business Ethernet services jostled for position in a hot market during the first half of this year.
Research firm Vertical Systems Group this week updated its market-share numbers since the last time we checked in on metro Ethernet. AT&T (now with the BellSouth acquisition under its belt) slipped a bit, but managed to hang on to first place. In 2006, AT&T had 13.6% of the market, and BellSouth held 8.5%. But after the merger, the whole is less than the sum of the parts, with a combined market share of 19.5% down from the 22.1% that the two companies held last year.
Meanwhile, Verizon Business and Time Warner Telecom managed to increase their share, with Verizon Business extending its reach from 12.2% to 15.8% and Time Warner Telecom moving from 10.7% to 13.7% of ports.
Vertical Systems Group said that Cox Business has moved into fourth place with 8.9% and now qualifies as one of the “top tier” of U.S. business Ethernet service providers.
Cogent is fifth, with 8.6% market share, up a bit from 8.2% last year. Qwest, meanwhile, slipped from 9.9% to 8.4%. Yipes, which was recently acquired, also saw a decline, from 5.4% to 4.6%. Other providers make up another 20.5% of the market.
Obviously, the market is in tremendous flux as the various players try to build their services out quickly.
Interestingly, Vertical Systems Group says that aggressive deployment of fiber optics for residential applications has had the added effect of making native Ethernet services more broadly available for businesses.
