Mid-Band Ethernet service of CenturyLink recognized by Frost & Sullivan
CenturyLink's (NYSE: CTL) Ethernet efforts, particularly its Mid Band Ethernet (MBE) offering, won top honors from business-research firm Frost & Sullivan, which awarded the company with its "Customer Value Enhancement Award in Retail Mid-Band Ethernet (MBE) Services."
MBE services, as defined by the analyst firm, are those that have speeds between 2-50 Mbps and are delivered to the customer premise via a copper or a hybrid fiber/copper network connection.
While the legacy CenturyTel and later CenturyLink (created by its acquisition of the former Embarq) had some Ethernet presence in the markets it served, the service provider gained an even larger foothold in both the Ethernet over Copper (EoC) and fiber-based Ethernet market when it completed its acquisition of Qwest last year.
Frost & Sullivan analyst Charles Carr said that the acquisition of both Qwest and later Savvis will enable it to target MBE customers with a new suite of managed services it could not sell before.
"The combined network strategically positions the company to up-sell its expanded portfolio of value-add and hosted IT/cloud-based services to MBE customers," he said.
Earlier this year, CenturyLink revealed that it expanded its Ethernet over Copper (EoC) rollout to about 334 new COs in the former Qwest markets.
In the first quarter of 2012, Ethernet continued to be a major growth engine for CenturyLink's Business Markets Group (BMG) unit. While overall BMG revenues declined 1.3 percent year-over-year due to declines in legacy services, strategic BMG revenues, including IP-based Ethernet services, rose 3 percent to $450 million.