Communications and Technology Industry Research

During a recent trip to the Denver, Colorado area, TMC (News - Alert) had occasion to sit with Time Warner Telecom for a period, when Bob Meldrum, the company’s vice president of corporate communications explained that TWTC had been expanding, and he expected the trend to continue, both through acquisition and organically.

 

Recently, market research firm Vertical Systems conducted its latest Ethernet market survey, which substantiated Meldrum’s claims. Indeed, according the Vertical, Time Warner (News - Alert) Telecom’s share of the Ethernet market has increased by three points over six months — which equates to a 28 percent increase in the number of Ethernet ports in service for TWTC. The company recently announced its 10,000^th Ethernet port in service

 

Ethernet connectivity has become the standard for connectivity among businesses, not only because of the intra-office efficiencies it enables, at least equally importantly, because distributed businesses can connect disparate offices via Ethernet, thus building substantial efficiencies into their communications networks — including enhanced security. As such, it is hardly surprising the Ethernet market itself is growing, and equally unsurprising a company with designs on continued growth is demonstrating just that.

 

“As customers realize the important benefits of Ethernet, our percentage of market share increases significantly,” said Mike Rouleau, senior vice president, strategy and business development for Time Warner Telecom (News - Alert). “Businesses are benefiting from our innovation in delivering services based on this very easy to use, scalable, reliable and secure technology. Our Ethernet services easily connect their businesses from doorstep to doorstep, and city to city across the country.”

 

According the data from Vertical Systems, while TWTC grew its market share, AT&T’s market share shrank by nearly the same amount (despite having inherited ports from Bell South). The difference effectively cut the divide between AT&T and Time Warner in half, certainly demonstrating that Time Warner has solidified its place in the Ethernet service provider market.

 

Time Warner Telecom’s Ethernet capabilities extend from 1Mbps to 10 Gbps service, including nationwide connectivity as fast as 1 Gbps, which it provides to mid-size businesses and large enterprises in 75 markets along its more than 25,000 route miles of fiber — and who can benefit from the reliability, versatility, and speed of the Time Warner Telecom service (which doesn’t exclude very many businesses).

 

“The company’s strategy to focus on delivering Ethernet to business customers has established it as one of the top three providers of retail Business Ethernet services in the U.S.,” said Erin Dunne, director of research services for Vertical Systems Group.