Ethernet over Copper (EoC) solutions are making headway in the small- to medium-sized markets throughout South Carolina. This move comes after a successful round of EoC implementations through metro Ethernet solutions in the medium and large business market. In fact, both North Carolina and South Carolina are welcoming the technology.

According to this Fierce Telecom (News - Alert) report, both Carolina territories had an extension of the EoC via Spirit Communications, a CLEC-owned entity with 11 other independent ILECs in South Carolina. Greg Guerra, executive vice president of strategy, product management and business development, believes that the company has a solid multi-location customer base but the focus needs to turn to servicing the smaller business customers.

There has been an overwhelming demand for Internet and voice bundles despite the success of Business Elite EoC just last year. This voice and data bundle targeted SMBs, but the focus is still on more traditional PRI and IP-based SIP trunking solutions. The Business Elite EoC was unveiled in roughly 10 South Carolina markets, but because of the unexpected growth at the lower end of the SMB market, Spirit has ramped up its services with Overture.

With the latest EoC roll out, SMB customers are able to take advantage of speeds of 3 to 10 Mbps. This leverages the EoC gear of the Overture Network recently purchased from Hatteras Networks (News - Alert), which is considered a significant bonus for CLEC's Business Elite metro Ethernet services. While South Carolina remains the focus of metro Ethernet for CLEC, there is always the possibility of expanding services into North Carolina and on into Georgia.

The growth for metro Ethernet services and EoC footprint complement each other as medium to large enterprise services goes forward. This is noteworthy growth for both Carolinas.

Deployments of solely Ethernet-based services are inexpensive but can be less than reliable or scalable, and fail to meet the growing needs of today’s businesses. This usually limits the number of deployments to a smaller scale or even at the experimentation level.

Businesses can, however, utilize the metro Ethernet capabilities to connect offices to each other so that remote employees have the same capabilities as those housed within the corporate office. This vast network still complies with all Ethernet standards and gives customers access to the larger service network or even the Internet.

As the demand for data-intense communications continues to grow, the need for metro Ethernet capabilities keeps pace. Those providers able to meet the need may very easily come to dominate the market.