Ethernet services grew 43% last year

Demand for business Ethernet services in the United States grew 43% last year, according to Vertical Systems Group, which measured the market’s growth in terms of business Ethernet ports.

"Despite a near paralysis of new telecom spending at the end of the year, there were tens of thousands of new Business Ethernet service installs during 2008," said Rick Malone, principal at Vertical Systems Group, in a statement. "Deployments were most active in the third quarter before many enterprises implemented spending freezes or staff reductions. Customer installations in the fourth quarter consisted primarily of follow-through on in-process network conversions."

AT&T maintained its leadership of the market in 2008, though Verizon narrowed the gap between them, Vertical said; at the end of 2007, AT&T held 22% of the market while Verizon held 17%. Vertical ranked other providers in order by market share this way: TW Telecom, Cox, Qwest Communications, Cogent Communications, Time Warner Cable and Level 3 Communications.

Qwest overtook Cogent’s market share in 2008 (at the end of 2007, Cogent held 7% of the market to Qwest’s 6%). And Level 3, which didn’t appear on 2007’s list of those with at least 5% of the market, debuted on the list in 2008.

Vertical released the news the same day that Cogent reported 10% revenue growth in the fourth quarter and expectations for 16% growth in 2009, perhaps illustrating a sharp contrast between the recession performance of a pure Ethernet play and those offering a mix of new and legacy services.