Mar 15, 2011 10:38 AM,

MegaPath to upgrade copper-over-Ethernet speeds

By Joan Engebretson

Carrier targets top 50 markets for completion before year-end 2012, supporting speeds up to 90 Mb/s

MegaPath said today it plans to upgrade the equipment it has deployed in 300 central offices in 15 major U.S. markets to support Ethernet-over-copper services at speeds as fast as 90 Mb/s. The company expects to complete the upgrade, which is based on equipment from Adtran, before the end of the year and to add central offices in 35 additional markets before the end of 2012, said MegaPath CEO Craig Young in an interview with Connected Planet. The final footprint will reach about 75% of U.S. businesses, Young said.

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Currently MegaPath is co-located in 1900 central offices where it can support Ethernet services at speeds up to 3 Mb/s. The equipment upgrade will enable the carrier to offer speeds of 2-20 Mb/s, but Young said, “if any customer wanted to go to 90 [Mb/s], we’d put it there for them tomorrow—it’s just a card change.”

MegaPath has been selling a lot of 20 Mb/s Ethernet service using another carrier, Young said, “and since we’re seeing a lot of demand, we thought it would be best to move in that direction.”

Strong wholesale, SMB and enterprise interest expected
Young expects demand for the higher-speed Ethernet services to be strong in all three of the markets MegaPath serves, including wholesale, small business and enterprise. On the enterprise side, key vertical markets include retail, hospitals and restaurants, he said—and point-of-sale and security systems are driving the need for higher bandwidth for some retail customers.

Another appeal of Ethernet-over-copper is that it can be easily upgraded to support higher speeds. An upgrade from 3 Mb/s to as high as 20 Mb/s would require only a phone call, said Young, and MegaPath could respond in as little as 60 minutes. In the future, the carrier is considering adding a self-service portal that customers could use to accomplish the same task.

MegaPath, which initially focused on the managed services market, got a jumpstart in the copper-over-Ethernet market through its purchase last year of Covad Communications. Covad pioneered the co-location process, initially to support DSL services, and had achieved one of the largest central office footprints of any competitive carrier. Since making the acquisition, MegaPath has emphasized higher-bandwidth Ethernet-over-copper offerings.