Research and Markets: U.S. Retail Carrier Ethernet Services Market Update 2010

Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/e40022/u_s_retail_carrie) has announced the addition of Frost & Sullivan's new report "U.S. Retail Carrier Ethernet Services Market Update 2010" to their offering.

This research has identified market drivers, market restraints, market trends and analyzed the competitive landscape for retail carrier Ethernet services. The study also presents market revenue forecasts, port forecasts, pricing forecasts and market share analysis for the U.S. retail Ethernet markets. The study is segmented by transport length (metro versus long haul), service type (Ethernet Access, E-Line and E-LAN) and port speeds (10M, 100M, 1 GigE and 10G). A brief info on pricing trends is also included in the research.

Research Overview This research service titled U.S. Retail Carrier Ethernet Services Market Update 2010 provides an in-depth analysis of the market drivers and restraints, industry trends, and competitive environment in addition to the challenges and issues faced by market participants. In this research, Frost & Sullivan's expert analysts thoroughly examine the following markets: private line, synchronous optical networking (SONET), wavelength services, asynchronous transfer mode (ATM), frame relay, carrier Ethernet, and multiprotocol label switching (MPLS).

Market Overview

Demand Upswing for Ethernet Access to MPLS VPNs and Dedicated Internet Access Fuelling Revenue Growth in the U.S. Retail Carrier Ethernet Services Market

The U.S. retail carrier Ethernet services market has currently entered the growth phase of the product lifecycle, recording an impressive growth rate of 37 percent. Despite the weak economy, market revenues for 2009 exceeded $1.5 billion. Ethernet as a transport service is gaining traction across businesses of all sizes owing to the benefit of scalable, reliable, and cost-efficient bandwidth. it offers. It has also emerged as an attractive service option for customers migrating from ATM, frame relay, SONET and private-line services with every conceivable vertical representing market opportunity. "The year 2009 marked the enhanced focus of service providers on network expansion, service level agreements (SLAs) and classes of service (CoS) offered on their Ethernet networks to drive market adoption," notes the analyst of this research service. "Almost every service provider is focused on achieving better latency on key network routes." Vertically focused solution offerings are another aspect that service providers are increasingly employing to compete effectively in the market. These initiatives seem justified as the market now has multiple flavors of Ethernet compared to earlier years. Ethernet services were until early 2009, largely limited to access and point-to-point connectivity (primarily Ethernet private line, which is SONET based) in the metro area networks. With carrier network interconnects increasing, Ethernet is at present experiencing growth as a long-haul service.

Although market prospects look upbeat, there are some challenges reining in market progression. Ethernet is still not widely available in the U.S. markets, thus limiting market opportunity for the service. Service providers are struggling with significant price compression in the long-haul markets. Moreover, customer concerns pertaining to SLAs associated with switched Ethernet service limit market spending on Ethernet virtual private line (EVPL) services. As the market migrates from traditional private lines to Ethernet, customers expect the same kind of service performance as available on T1/T3 and SONET circuits. For this reason, Ethernet private line, which is enabled over SONET, is more popular than EVPL. Service providers are increasingly focusing on offering SONET type of protection on switched Ethernet services. However, the concerns are largely attributed to the customers comfort level with moving to a shared platform as compared to dedicated circuits.

Going forward, 10 M and 100 M ports will constitute a major chunk of the long-haul E-LAN ports. Customers are opting for higher port speeds for head office to datacenter connectivity and lower speeds to connect the branch offices, thus boosting the demand for 10 M and 100 M ports. The national carriers, such as AT&T, Verizon, Qwest, and Level 3, have robust offerings, with most of them providing EVPL and virtual private LAN services (VPLS). Most large carriers own an MPLS core, facilitating the roll out of a combination of services for their customers. "Combining layer-2 Ethernet-based VPN with layer-3 MPLS VPN is a key trend in the market," says the analyst. As the market acceptance for Ethernet as a transport service grows, the national carriers will capture market share based on their network footprint and completeness of solutions offered.

Market Sectors

Expert Frost & Sullivan analysts thoroughly examine the following market sectors in this research:

• Metro
• Long haul
• Technologies

The following technologies are covered in this research:

• EPL
• EVPL
• VPLS

Key Topics Covered:

• 1. Introduction
• 2. Research Scope and Definitions
• 3. Total Market Overview and Trend Analysis
• 4. Total Retail Carrier Ethernet Services Market Revenue Analysis
• 5. Retail Metro/Intracity Ethernet Services Revenue Analysis
• 6. Retail Metro/Intracity Ethernet Service Ports Analysis
• 7. Retail Metro/Intracity Ethernet Service Pricing Analysis
• 8. Retail Long haul/Intercity Ethernet Services Revenue Analysis
• 9. Retail Long haul/Intercity Ethernet Service Ports Analysis
• 10. Retail Long haul/Intercity Ethernet Service Pricing Analysis
• 11. Competitive Landscape and Market Share Analysis

For more information visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/e40022/u_s_retail_carrie