SCIENCE

Wireline data services is a business spending category that includes expenditures on wide area network (WAN) data transport services. These services include dedicated cable, DSL, network-based IP VPN, T1, frame relay, ATM, and Ethernet services. This also includes MPLS (multiprotocol label switching), which is a mechanism in high-performance telecommunications networks that directs and carries data from one network node to the next with the help of labels making it easy to create "virtual links" between distant nodes. New In-Stat research forecasts that MPLS is becoming more popular and that spending on the communication's technology will reach $2.4 billion in 2015.

"MPLS is protocol agnostic and highly scalable," says Greg Potter, Analyst. "It was designed to provide a unified data-carrying service for both circuit-based clients and packet-switching clients. A number of different technologies were previously deployed with similar goals, like frame relay and ATM. Newly collected data tells us that the increase in MPLS spending has had a negative impact on some of these other technologies."

Additional data includes:

•     Frame relay spending will decline 55% from 2010 to 2015.
•     Spending on cable data services will increase 34% over the forecast period.
•     Small businesses (20-99 employees) will spend a little over $6.2 billion in 2012.
•     The healthcare and social services vertical will experience the largest overall gain, increasing $1.2 billion over the forecast period.

The In-Stat research, US Business Spending by Size of Business and Vertical, 2010-2015: Wireline Data Services (#IN1105028WDFS) provides forecasts of US business telecom spending for the 2010-2015 period with detailed segmentation by product category, size of business, corporate liable spending, individual liable spending, and vertical market.