For the first time since 2017, Lumen was not atop Vertical Systems Group’s (VSG) Carrier Ethernet Leaderboard as the service provider fell to second behind AT&T. The other four providers qualifying for the 2022 year-end leaderboard were Charter Spectrum Enterprise, Verizon, Comcast Business and Cox Business.
The Leaderboard consists of companies with at least 4% of retail port shares installed. The change in the top spot was due to Lumen’s spinoff of operations in 20 states to Brightspeed. VSG also noted that the totals tightened between the other providers in the tier.
There also were six service providers in the Challenge Tier, which consists of service providers with between 1% and 4% of the retail market. They are Altice USA, Cogent, Frontier, GTT, Windstream, and Zayo.
VSG Carrier Ethernet Leaderboard
VSG said that challenges cited by Ethernet service providers include supply chain issues, price compression, migration to SD-WAN, a more competitive landscape and an uncertain economy.
“Dedicated Internet Access (DIA) became the largest and fastest growing segment of the U.S. Ethernet market in 2022,” Rick Malone, principal of Vertical Systems Group, said in a press release. “Although the total market grew only by low single digits, DIA was in high demand as a reliable underlay service supporting enterprise network transformations to SD-WAN/SASE, as well as for secure, dedicated access to cloud-based services.”
Other findings:
- Direct Internet Access (DIA) is the top performing service across the six Ethernet segments tracked by Vertical Systems Group. The firm saw neither growth or shrinkage in Ethernet Private Lines, Ethernet Virtual Private Lines, E-Access to VPN, Metro LAN or WAN VPLS.
- Demand for Gigabit Ethernet services is robust for applications requiring dedicated high capacity and low latency, such as connectivity to data centers.
- Lumen and Verizon have attained MEF 3.0 Carrier Ethernet (CE) certification.
VSG also lists a Market Player tier that includes providers with less than 1% of the market and provides a partial alphabetical list. It includes ACD, AireSpring, Alaska Communications, Alta Fiber, American Telesis, Arelion, Armstrong Business Solutions, Astound Business, Breezeline, Brightspeed, BT Global Services, Centracom, Consolidated Communications, Conterra, Crown Castle, DFN, DQE Communications, Exa Infrastructure, Fatbeam, FiberLight, First Digital, FirstLight, Flo Networks, Fusion Connect, Global Cloud Xchange, Great Plains Communications, Hunter Communications, Intelsat, Logix Fiber Networks, LS Networks, MetTel, MetroNet Business, Midco, Momentum Telecom, NTT, Orange Business, Pilot Fiber, PS Lightwave, Ritter Communications, Segra, Shentel Business, Silver Star Telecom, Sparklight Business, Syringa, T-Mobile, Tata, TDS Telecom, TPx, Unite Private Networks, Uniti, US Signal, WOW!Business and Ziply Fiber.