1.1  Carriers and Public Ethernet Service

Ethernet is the world’s computer-to-computer protocol, with interfaces on a billion computers worldwide—and it is well on the road to becoming a dominant force in metropolitan and wide-area communications. 

Public Ethernet is still in a relatively early growth stage, though its heretofore robust growth is being temporarily slowed by current global recession and concomitant intensifying downward pricing pressures.  Ethernet remains, however, second only to IP in terms of growth potential and influence on the global communications market, and it has become an increasingly prominent feature of the national data networking landscape in the US.  Ethernet services are available from virtually all major US data service providers, including incumbents, second-tier carriers, and smaller specialized players, who tend to differentiate themselves by price, technology, and flexibility.

Until recently, public Ethernet services had generally earned the label “metro Ethernet.”  The majority of Ethernet service— aside from access—has been, and still is, between points within a metropolitan area.  It is only relatively recently that public Ethernet has become more widely accepted as a wide area, long-haul service. 

Public Ethernet's increasingly broad acceptance has been stimulated in part by the recent dramatic efforts of the incumbents in the Ethernet space..............

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