U.S. enterprises and consumers are apparently putting their money where their Ethernet is, according to a recent survey by Insight Research Corp (News - Alert).

According to the new market research study, more than $44 billion is expected to be spent over the next five years on Ethernet services provided by carriers, which includes metro Ethernet, native LAN, Ethernet, Gigabit Ethernet, Ethernet private line and virtual private line, Layer 2 virtual private network, Ethernet access and virtual private LAN services.

Moreover, the study, entitled “Carriers and Ethernet Services: Public Ethernet in Metro & Wide Area Networks, 2011-2016,” also revealed that metro-area and wide-area Ethernet services being readily available from all major data service providers will spark a market uptick from $4 billion in 2011 to reach almost $11.1 billion by 2016.

“Wireless backhaul is the fastest-growing sector within the Ethernet marketplace,” said Robert Rosenberg, president of Insight Research, in a press release. “Ethernet can provide the necessary backhaul at lower unit costs and with greater flexibility than the older technology. The market continues to be paced by voracious bandwidth demands from its longstanding key verticals such as finance, schools, government and healthcare – whose data transmission requirements continue to grow rapidly.”

In addition, with Ethernet’s ability to adhere to limitless bandwidth demands at affordable costs and with enhanced flexibility, competing services are slowly, but surely, falling by the wayside. The study also stated that new high-bandwidth 40- and 100-Giabit services will become more and more important during this five-year forecast period, as they slowly emerge due to existing costly equipment prices.

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Tammy Wolf is a TMCnet web editor. She covers a wide range of topics, including IP communications and information technology. To read more of her articles, please visit her columnist page.

Edited by Jennifer Russell