Despite the recession, incumbent carriers stepped up their presence in the business Ethernet market during the first half of this year.

According to the latest information from Vertical Systems Group, incumbents gained ground in the business Ethernet market in the first half of 2009 by capitalizing on their fiber footprints and focusing on metro services.

As a result, the incumbent carrier segment now exceeds the competitive provider and cable MSO segments combined, based on retail customer port installations. AT&T showed the largest gain, increasing its share by more than 1 percent during the first half of 2009. Verizon and Qwest also gained share during the six-month period. 

"The first six months of 2009 showed healthy growth in U.S. business Ethernet services, despite the soft market for telecom services overall," said Rick Malone, principal at Vertical Systems Group. "Lower cost metro services led the way as user enterprises continued to consolidate headcount into their metro campuses and local building clusters."

Vertical Systems Group's U.S. Business Ethernet Leaderboard includes service providers with 4 percent or more of the market based on ports. Nine providers attained a Leaderboard ranking based on mid-2009 business Ethernet share results. Each of the top three providers holds a double-digit port share, while provider shares between the sixth and ninth positions are separated by less than 4 percent. 

During the recent analysis, XO moved into the Leaderboard for the first time. The nine providers in order by port share were: AT&T, Verizon, Time Warner Telecom, Cox, Qwest, Time Warner Cable, Cogent, XO and Level 3.