Orange Business Keeps Global Ethernet Lead, While Lumen Divestitures Take Effect

Vertical Systems Group‘s (VSG) global Ethernet provider rankings stayed the same at the top, as adoption of the technology grows.

VSG just unveiled its 2022 Global Provider Ethernet Services Leaderboard, which shows French provider Orange Business holding a slim lead. U.K.-based Colt sits in second, followed by Verizon and AT&T. Those four companies sat in the same spots in the 2021 leaderboard. The ranking stayed largely the same, with the exception of two providers moving past Lumen.

Lumen fell from fifth to seventh. VSG cited the sale of Lumen’s Latin American business to Stonepeak. According to VSG, Lumen’s LATAM group featured a significant Ethernet base. Therefore, BT Global Services leapfrogged from sixth to fifth, and NTT jumped from seventh to sixth.

In addition, Lumen’s sale of global Ethernet ports to Cirion helped Cirion earn a spot on the challenge tier. The number of companies on the challenge tier increased from eight to nine.

The leaderboard features companies with 4% or more the overall billable retail ports outside of their home countries.

Growth

VSG found a “steady uptick” in newly installed global provider Ethernet ports last year.

Vertical Systems Group’s Rick Malone

“The market for global Ethernet ports expanded as enterprises continue to add sites to their existing networks,” said Vertical Systems Group principal Rick Malone.

Malone noted that dedicated internet access (DIA) grew faster than other Ethernet services. He cited the growing enterprise adoption of hybrid SD-WAN architectures, which frequently leverage DIA.

VSG recently unveiled its U.S. carrier Ethernet rankings, which showed AT&T leading Lumen and Spectrum Enterprise, respectively.

Malone in that report similarly noted the rise of DIA.

“Although the total market grew only by low single digits, DIA was in high demand as a reliable underlay service supporting enterprise network transformations to SD-WAN/SASE, as well as for secure, dedicated access to cloud-based services,” he said.

Channel Futures recently debated the question of how SASE has shifted SD-WAN priorities in the eyes of business customers.