Enterprise spending on carrier Ethernet services will top $37 billion over five years

BOONTON, USA: US enterprises and consumers are expected to spend more than $37 billion over the next five years on Ethernet services provided by carriers, according to a new market research study from The Insight Research Corp.

With metro-area and wide-area Ethernet services readily available from virtually all major data service providers, the market is expected to grow at a compounded rate of almost 25 percent, increasing from $3.1 billion in 2010 to reach nearly $9.7 billion by 2015.

According to Insight Research's market analysis study, "Carriers and Ethernet Services: Public Ethernet in Metro & Wide Area Networks, 2010-2015," the economic recession that emerged in late 2008 has not dampened US enterprises appetite for Ethernet service.

Insight is projecting the surge in demand will peak by 2011 as the economy improves Ethernet revenue growth rates hit 29 percent on a compounded annual basis. Ethernet services are marketed under various names: transparent or native LAN, Ethernet, Gigabit Ethernet, GigE, metro Ethernet, Ethernet private line, Ethernet virtual private line, Layer 2 virtual private network, Ethernet access, and virtual private LAN service.

"The momentum behind retail sales of Ethernet services to the enterprise is being driven by the customer's steadily increasing demand for data bandwidth and Ethernet's real cost advantages in terms of providing flexible bandwidth and scalability that is superior to many competitive services," says Robert Rosenberg, president of Insight Research.

"The driving force behind wholesale Ethernet sales is improved interoperability among carriers, greater confidence in emerging and recently adopted standards, as well as shifts by more carriers to a more wholesale-friendly posture," Rosenberg concluded.