BOSTON, MA, MARCH 12, 2015 – The top four Incumbents selling Carrier Ethernet services in the U.S. are as follows (in rank order based on port share): AT&T, Verizon, CenturyLink, and Windstream, according to Vertical Systems Group’s latest research. These companies have achieved positions on Vertical’s 2014 U.S. Incumbent Carrier Ethernet LEADERBOARD, the benchmark for measuring Ethernet market presence based on billable retail ports delivered by Incumbent Carriers.

“As a group, Incumbent Carriers had slower Ethernet growth than Competitive Providers or Cable MSOs. However, incumbents made considerable service advances in 2014, including investments in fiber builds and stronger integration with other offerings,” said Rick Malone, principal at Vertical Systems Group. “Despite the challenges of mature technologies and a cost structure that can be uncompetitive for out-of-region sites, incumbents lead in the delivery of more complex nationwide networks.”

Each company on the 2014 U.S. Incumbent Carrier Ethernet LEADERBOARD has achieved either a LEADERBOARD rank or a Challenge Tier citation on the 2014 U.S. Carrier Ethernet LEADERBOARD.

Other companies in the Incumbent Carrier segment include the following (in alphabetical order): Cincinnati Bell, FairPoint, Frontier, Hawaiian Telecom, TDS Telecom and other incumbents selling retail Ethernet services in the U.S. market.

Detailed Ethernet share results for the U.S. market and by provider segment – Incumbent Carrier, Competitive Provider, Cable MSO – plus in-depth share analysis are available now exclusively through Vertical Systems Group’s ENS (Emerging Networks Service) Research Programs.