We have some exciting news to share with you regarding our Ethernet services. 

First, some background – an important part of Ethernet’s accelerating growth is the work of the Metro Ethernet Forum (MEF), the global standards body responsible for defining the future of Ethernet. We recognize the value of industry collaboration and participate extensively as a MEF Board member. Comcast’s involvement with this organization spans many years.

At this year’s MEF ’16 conference, which was attended by many industry experts, analysts, Ethernet visionaries and service providers, I am proud to say that Comcast Business brought home two awards. 

The first was an Enterprise Application Award in the Government category. This was for our Ethernet deployment at the City of St. Paul, Minnesota, where we provide an all-fiber Ethernet network to connect more than 100 city facilities together. Two 100 Gigabit Ethernet lines in a "dual star" topology maximize redundancy and provide scalability to meet future bandwidth requirements for the City.

The second was an Enterprise Application Award in the Sports and Entertainment category. This was for our Ethernet deployment for the Sacramento Kings at their newly opened arena, the Golden1Center. Two 100 Gigabit Ethernet lines support fan Wi-Fi and other stadium operations in the state-of-the-art, 17,500-seat venue, which has a goal to be "the most connected stadium in the world." 

We are seeing rising demand for Ethernet from more enterprises, mid-market customers and small businesses due to expanding service options, competitive pricing and increased bandwidth requirements. In addition, our ability to deliver 100 Gigabit Ethernet to customers – a breakthrough level of performance – helps to set us apart in a competitive market.

We would like to thank the Metro Ethernet Forum for this recognition, and the City of St. Paul and the Sacramento Kings for working with us on these significant projects, which are shining examples of Ethernet in action. Finally, I would like to thank our engineers, support staff, and the technicians out in the field who are expanding our fiber network to new business locations and working hard to deliver service to our customers.

On behalf of all Comcast Business employees, we accept these awards, and look forward to another great year in 2017.