AT&T, Verizon and Level 3 rank among the top seven in Vertical Systems Group’s latest Global Provider Ethernet leaderboard.

Ranked in order based on port share, Orange Business is tops, with Colt in second position after it made share gains in the second half of 2015. BT Global Services follows in third place. Then come AT&T, Verizon, Level 3 and Japan’s NTT, respectively.

To crack the leaderboard, a company must have 4 percent or more of billable retail ports at sites outside of their respective home countries.

Vertical also named a handful of companies to its Challenge Tier; all have 2 to 4 percent market share outside of their home nations. Listed alphabetically, they are Cogent, Global Cloud Xchange, SingTel, T-Systems, Tata Communications, Telefonica Worldwide and Vodafone. {ad}

“Deployments by Ethernet providers outside their home countries rose 13 percent in 2015, indicating steady footprint expansion and network globalization,” said Rick Malone, principal at Vertical Systems Group. “In addition to more extensive coverage for their global customers, carriers focused on speed and functionality enhancements, as well as the introduction of new SDN-enabled service capabilities.”

Noting the growing importance of the Metro Ethernet Forum’s CE 2.0 certification as a competitive differentiator, Vertical pointed to Colt, AT&T, Verizon and Level as the four among the leaders that have achieved it.