Thanks in large part to its acquisitions of Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks, Charter Communications is now the third-largest supplier of Carrier Ethernet services, trailing only AT&T and Level 3 Communications.

That’s according to Vertical Systems Group following the release of its mid-year 2016 U.S. Leaderboard, which ranks companies on retail port share. Vertical Systems Group’s Leaderboard threshold is 4% or more of billable port installations.

Among cable operators, Comcast is the sixth-largest in the U.S., while Cox Communications is eighth.   The aggregation of Charter and its acquisitions dropped Verizon to fourth.

At the end of 2015, TWC was the largest cable MSO, ranked fifth, on the Leaderboard, while Charter and Bright House were relegated to the “Challenge Tier,” which includes companies that have between 1% to 4% share of the U.S. retail Ethernet market.

“The competitive balance of the Ethernet marketplace is evident, as more than 60 percent of new connections were delivered by CLECs and Cable MSOs during the first half of 2016,” Rick Malone, principal of Vertical Systems Group, said in a statement. “Our analysis shows a 17% annualized growth rate for U.S. Carrier Ethernet services for the full year.”

Cogent, Integra, Lightpath (now part of Altice USA) and Zayo were in the Challenge Tier for the mid-2016 tally.

Vertical’s Market Player tier (share below 1%) included the following: Alpheus Communications, American Telesis, Birch Communications, BT Global Services, Cincinnati Bell, Consolidated Communications, Earthlink Business, Expedient, FairPoint, FiberLight, Frontier, Global Capacity, Global Cloud Xchange, GTT, Hawaiian Telecom, Lightower, LS Networks, Lumos Networks, Masergy, MegaPath, NTT America, Orange Business, RCN Business, Sprint, SuddenLink (now part of Altice USA), Tata, TDS Telecom, TelePacific, Telstra, US Signal, WOW!Business and other companies selling retail Ethernet services in the U.S. market.

Spectrum Business Enterprise Solutions, the commercial services unit of Charter Communications, said it has achieved Carrier Ethernet 2.0  certification from the Metro Ethernet Forum.

The achievement, also achieved by fellow operators such as Cox Communications, RCN, Comcast and Time Warner Cable, ensures that Spectrum Business Enterprise Solutions is up to snuff on 2.0 attributes in areas of standards, scalability, reliability, quality of service and service management.

Spectrum Business Enterprise Solutions said it has nearly 100 Carrier Ethernet Certified Professionals (MEF-CECP), an expert-level certification offered by the Metro Ethernet Forum to individuals.

"Achieving MEF 2.0 certification is an essential proof point for Spectrum Business carrier-class Ethernet services," said Cynthia Carpenter, vice president of commercial product management for Charter, in a statement.  "We are proud to have attained this important certification and look forward to continually serving business customers with enterprise-grade network and communications services."

As of mid-2015, Charter was in the “Challenge Tier” of Vertical Systems Group’s U.S. Carrier Ethernet Leaderboard, which designates providers that have between 1% and 4% share of the U.S. retail Ethernet market. Others in that group include Bright House Networks, Cogent, Lightpath (Cablevision Systems),  Windstream and Zayo.

AT&T topped all providers as of mid-2015, followed by Level 3 Communications, Verizon Communications, CenturyLink, Time Warner Cable, Comcast, XO and Cox.

Charter will move up substantially following its proposed acquisitions of TWC and  Bright House.

RCN Business, the commercial services arm of RCN, said it has upgraded its Ethernet network backbone to include 100 Gigabit per second links.

With the upgrade, RCN Business, a Metro Ethernet Forum 2.0 certified carrier, said it can now scale its Ethernet services from 3 Mbps to 100 Gbps.

RCN Business is using the platform to target small- and medium-sized businesses and enterprises in markets  such as Boston; Chicago; Philadelphia and Lehigh Valley, Pa.; Washington, D.C.; and New York  City. RCN is battling in a highly competitive marketplace. 

AT&T, Level 3, Verizon, CenturyLink, Time  Warner Cable, Comcast, XO and Cox Communications topped Vertical Systems Group’s Carrier Ethernet Services leaderboard for mid-year 2015.  Bright House Networks, Charter Communications,  Cogent, Cablevision Systems’s Lightpath, Windstream and Zayo made up the “challenge” tier, which lists providers with between 1% and 4% share of the U.S. retail Ethernet market.

RCN Business, which offers a suite of Ethernet services spanning E-Line, E-LAN and E-Access,  made Vertical Systems’s “market player’ tier, which factors in all providers with port share below 1%.