CenturyLink and AT&T retain the top two rankings; Spectrum Enterprise advances to third position, surpassing Verizon

BOSTON, MA, February 24, 2020 –  Vertical Systems Group announced today that seven companies achieved a position on the 2019 U.S. Carrier Ethernet LEADERBOARD. The market leading companies are as follows (in rank order based on year-end 2019 retail port share): CenturyLink, AT&T, Spectrum Enterprise, Verizon, Comcast, Windstream and Cox. Service providers must have four percent (4%) or more of the U.S. Ethernet services market to qualify for a LEADERBOARD rank.

Six companies attained a 2019 Challenge Tier citation (in alphabetical order): Altice USA, Cogent, Frontier, GTT, Sprint and Zayo. The Challenge Tier includes providers with between 1% and 4% share of the U.S. retail Ethernet market.

“The base of U.S. Ethernet ports increased by 8.9 percent in 2019, buoyed by healthy demand for higher speed access to cloud, Internet and VPN services,” said Rick Malone, principal of Vertical Systems Group. “During the past year, Ethernet providers focused on better monetizing service features to expand their existing business, while introducing streamlined offers to target the needs of the SMB market.”

Highlights of Vertical’s 2019 U.S. Ethernet Market Share Analysis

• CenturyLink continues to hold first position on the U.S. Ethernet LEADERBOARD, followed by AT&T in second position.
• Spectrum Enterprise moves up to the third position from fourth, surpassing Verizon.
• Comcast had the highest year-over-year market share growth across the 2019 LEADERBOARD providers.
• Four Incumbent Carriers (CenturyLink, AT&T, Verizon, Windstream) and three Cable MSOs (Spectrum Enterprise, Comcast, Cox) are represented on the 2019 LEADERBOARD.

U.S. Ethernet Market Trends

• Retail U.S. Ethernet installations increased 8.9% to more than 1.25 million customer ports.
• Price compression, particularly for high speed services, continues to limit Ethernet revenue growth.
• Ethernet is the WAN underlay of choice for Carrier Managed SD-WAN solutions requiring secure, dedicated high speed connectivity.
• Active fiber build-outs across the U.S. are enabling Ethernet footprint expansions to serve a broader base of mid-market customers.
• Ethernet service enhancements are providing customers with improved performance, faster installations, and more flexible network configurations.

The Market Player tier includes all providers with U.S. retail Ethernet port share below 1%. Companies in the Market Player tier include the following providers (in alphabetical order): 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, NTT, Orange Business, RCN Business, Segra, Tata, TDS Telecom, Telstra, TPx, Unite Private Networks, US Signal, WOW!Business and others.

Market shares used to determine the U.S. Ethernet LEADERBOARD rankings are based on the number of billable retail customer ports in service as tracked by Vertical Systems Group. Ethernet port share analysis includes the following six service segments from the market perspective of what service providers are offering and enterprise customers are purchasing: Ethernet DIA (Dedicated Internet Access), E-Access to IP/MPLS VPN, Ethernet Private Lines, Ethernet Virtual Private Lines, Metro LAN, and WAN VPLS.

Detailed Ethernet share results that power the Year-End 2019 U.S. Carrier Ethernet LEADERBOARD are available now exclusively to Vertical Systems Group’s ENS Research Program subscribers of @Ethernet.  Contact us for subscription information and pricing.