Cox jumps onto Vertical System Group’s Mid-Year 2019 U.S. Carrier Ethernet Leaderboard

Sept. 10, 2019

The mid-year 2019 edition of the Leaderboard shows CenturyLink again in the top position within a market that saw a 5% increase in port installation for the first six months of the year.

Stephen Hardy

Cable MSO Cox Communications has graduated from the Challenge Tier to Leaderboard status in Vertical Systems Group’s ranking of U.S. Carrier Ethernet service providers. The mid-year 2019 edition of the Leaderboard shows CenturyLink again in the top position within a market that saw a 5% increase in port installation for the first six months of the year.

Service providers must attain at least a 4% share of the U.S. Ethernet service market to attain Leaderboard status. Those in the Challenge Tier have between 1% and 4%, while the Market Player Tier comprises everyone else. Vertical Systems Group’s tally of Carrier Ethernet services includes Ethernet Dedicated Internet Access (DIA), E-Access to IP/MPLS Virtual Private Network (VPN), Ethernet Private Lines, Ethernet Virtual Private Lines, Metro LAN, and WAN Virtual Private Line Services. Shares are measured based on the number of billable retail customer ports installed.

In between CenturyLink and Cox on the Leaderboard at the halfway mark of 2019 are Verizon, Spectrum Enterprise, Comcast and Windstream. "In the first half of 2019 the U.S. Ethernet market showed steady port growth just above five percent," commented Rick Malone, principal of Vertical Systems Group. "The three cable MSOs ranked on the Leaderboard - Spectrum Enterprise, Comcast, and Cox - had the highest port growth in this period, spurred in part by SD-WAN customer demand for Ethernet DIA connections to the public Internet."

Altice USA, Cogent, Frontier, GTT, Sprint, and Zayo compose the current Challenge Tier. Other companies being tracked as part of the Market Player Tier include Alaska Communications, American Telesis, Atlantic Broadband, BT Global Services, Cincinnati Bell, Consolidated Communications, Crown Castle Fiber, DQE Communications, Expedient, FiberLight, FirstLight, Fusion, Global Cloud Xchange, Great Plains Communications, Logix Fiber Networks, LS Networks, Masergy, MetTel, Midco, Momentum Telecom, NTT America, Orange Business, RCN Business, Segra, Sparklight Business, Tata, TDS Telecom, Telstra, TPx, Unite Private Networks, US Signal, and WOW!Business, among others.

The research behind the Leaderboard is conducted as part of the Vertical Systems Group's ENS Research Programs, which provide a cloud-based resource with hundreds of research topics, plus analyst support for customer ad hoc requests or consultations. The ENS covers enterprise customer migration across all broadband network services, which Vertical Systems Group asserts provides more defensible analysis versus discrete market forecasts.

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About the Author

Stephen Hardy | Editorial Director and Associate Publisher, Lightwave

Stephen Hardy is editorial director and associate publisher of Lightwave and Broadband Technology Report, part of the Lighting & Technology Group at Endeavor Business Media. Stephen is responsible for establishing and executing editorial strategy across the both brands’ websites, email newsletters, events, and other information products. He has covered the fiber-optics space for more than 20 years, and communications and technology for more than 35 years. During his tenure, Lightwave has received awards from Folio: and the American Society of Business Press Editors (ASBPE) for editorial excellence. Prior to joining Lightwave in 1997, Stephen worked for Telecommunications magazine and the Journal of Electronic Defense.

Stephen has moderated panels at numerous events, including the Optica Executive Forum, ECOC, and SCTE Cable-Tec Expo. He also is program director for the Lightwave Innovation Reviews and the Diamond Technology Reviews.

He has written numerous articles in all aspects of optical communications and fiber-optic networks, including fiber to the home (FTTH), PON, optical components, DWDM, fiber cables, packet optical transport, optical transceivers, lasers, fiber optic testing, and more.

You can connect with Stephen on LinkedIn as well as Twitter.