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BOONTON, N.J. — The U.S. public Ethernet services market is expected to grow from $940 million in 2006 to over $5 billion in 2012, according to a new market research study from The Insight Research Corporation. With metro-area Ethernet services now available from virtually all major data service providers and wide-area Ethernet about to get a shot in the arm from the dominant carriers, the market is poised to take off.

According to Insight Research’s market analysis study, “Public Ethernet Services 2007-2012,” the term “public Ethernet” refers to any Layer 2 public network carrier service that extends Ethernet beyond the LAN and connects to customers through Ethernet interfaces. Public Ethernet may be marketed as transparent or native LAN, Ethernet, Gigabit Ethernet, GigE, metro Ethernet, Ethernet private line (EPL), Ethernet virtual private line (EVPL), Layer 2 virtual private network (VPN), Ethernet access, virtual private LAN service (VPLS), or a variety of other names.

Until recently, public Ethernet services were generally referred to as “metro Ethernet” and the largest portion of sales had been between points within a metropolitan area. This is expected to change in 2007, however, as major incumbents-particularly AT&T and Verizon-introduce long-haul Layer 2 VPNs.

“Insight’s research suggests that the many-to-many E-LAN service will be the fastest growing part of public Ethernet because the economic advantages of Ethernet actually increase exponentially (as opposed to proportionally) in relation to the number of points connected,” says Robert Rosenberg, president of Insight Research. “And though we expect to see an accelerating pace of Ethernet adoption across the board, we are not ready to predict that Ethernet is ready to ‘take over the world.’ Generally speaking, private line and frame relay customers are not ready to or interested in deserting longstanding services, so the migration to Ethernet is going to be slow and steady,” Rosenberg concluded.

“Public Ethernet Services 2007-2012” examines public Ethernet market spending and usage patterns by topology (E-line, E-LAN, and access), regional domain (metro, wide-area, and access), retail/wholesale, and various bandwidth levels.

An excerpt of this public Ethernet services market research report, table of contents, and ordering information are online http://www.insight-corp.com/reports/PES07.asp. This 145-page report is available immediately for $3,995 (hard copy). Electronic (PDF) reports can be ordered online.

[tags]Insight Research Corporation, market research study, public ethernet services[/tags]