Cable Operators Find Love With Ethernet Services, Report Finds

NEW YORK, Jan. 7 /PRNewswire/ -- Cable network operators continue to make a strong run at capturing a larger share of the all-important business services market, and Ethernet is emerging as a huge part of their competitive arsenal, according to the latest report from Light Reading Insider (www.lightreading.com/insider), a paid research service of TechWeb's Light Reading (www.lightreading.com).

Cable Operators & Ethernet: Serious Business examines how cable companies are approaching the Ethernet services business, comparing their go-to-market and technology strategies. It profiles and analyzes eight significant cable companies and/or their data subsidiaries in terms of how they are addressing the Ethernet market, particularly their service offerings, expansion plans, strategies, technology suppliers and choices, target markets, and resulting customers and businesses.

For a list of companies covered in this report, please see: http://img.lightreading.com/lri/pdf/lri0110_companies.pdf

"U.S. cable carriers continue moving aggressively into the Ethernet services market," notes Steve Koppman, research analyst with Light Reading Insider and author of the report. "All MSOs of substantial size have involved themselves in the business services market, with Ethernet a growing part of that portfolio - and some 20 percent of the U.S. Ethernet services market is now going to cable operators."

It is certain that the MSO share of the Ethernet market will continue growing at the expense of incumbents and other competitors, Koppman says. "MSOs continue to have specific competitive strengths particularly in their focus on Ethernet as their prime data service (beyond IP), their lack of concern for preserving competing legacy data (private line, frame relay) businesses, their next-generation architectures, combinations of ubiquitous HFC networks with substantial fiber ones, and generally lower overheads than incumbents," he explains.

Key findings of Cable Operators & Ethernet: Serious Business the following:

• U.S. MSOs now account for about 20 percent of the U.S. Ethernet services market, the majority held by three market leaders.
• MSOs have a relatively consistent pattern of selling point-to-point, metro-oriented retail Ethernet while de-emphasizing other data.
• While having strengths in traditional verticals, MSOs are making their deepest inroads in the SMB sector.
• Despite an emphasis on SMBs, a majority of revenue already comes from relatively high-end 100 MB+ services.

Cable Operators & Ethernet: Serious Business is available as part of an annual single-user subscription (12 monthly issues) to Light Reading Insider, priced at $1,595. Individual reports are available for $900 (single-user license).

To subscribe, or for more information, please visit: www.lightreading.com/insider. For more information on all of Light Reading's Insider services, please visit www.lightreading.com/research.

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About Light Reading

Founded in 2000, Light Reading (www.lightreading.com) is the leading online media, research, and focused event company serving the $3 trillion worldwide communications market. Lightreading.com is the ultimate source for technology and financial analysis of the communications industry, leading the media sector in terms of traffic, content, and reputation. Light Reading's research arms, Heavy Reading and Pyramid Research, provide the most comprehensive communications research, market data, and technology analysis in close to 100 markets around the world. Light Reading produces nearly 20 targeted communications events including TelcoTV, Ethernet Expo New York and Ethernet Expo London, The Tower Summit @ CTIA, and Optical Expo, as well as focused one-day events tailored for cable, mobile, and wireline executives. Light Reading was acquired by United Business Media in August 2005 and operates as a unit of TechWeb.

About TechWeb

TechWeb (techweb.com/aboutus), the global leader in business technology media, is an innovative business focused on serving the needs of technology decision-makers and marketers worldwide. TechWeb produces the most respected and consumed media brands in the business technology market. Today, more than 13.3 million* business technology professionals actively engage in our communities created around our global face-to-face events Interop, Web 2.0, Black Hat and VoiceCon; online resources such as the TechWeb Network, Light Reading, Intelligent Enterprise, InformationWeek.com, bMighty.com, and The Financial Technology Network; and the market leading, award-winning InformationWeek, TechNet Magazine, MSDN Magazine, Wall Street & Technology magazines. TechWeb also provides end-to-end services ranging from next-generation performance marketing, integrated media, research, and analyst services. TechWeb is a division of United Business Media, a global provider of news distribution and specialist information services with a market capitalization of more than $2.5 billion.

* 13.3 million business decision-makers: based on # of monthly connections

About United Business Media Limited

UBM (UBM.L) focuses on two principal activities: worldwide information distribution, targeting and monitoring; and, the development and monetization of B2B communities and markets. UBM's businesses inform markets and serve professional commercial communities - from doctors to game developers, from journalists to jewelry traders, from farmers to pharmacists - with integrated events, online, print and business information products. Our 6,500 staff in more than 30 countries are organized into specialist teams that serve these communities, bringing buyers and sellers together, helping them to do business and their markets to work effectively and efficiently. For more information, go to http://www.unitedbusinessmedia.com.

SOURCE Light Reading Insider