It’s no secret that the cable industry sees the small/medium business and enterprise sectors as their next big growth engine. Continuing to grow revenue generating units in the consumer triple play sector is nice, but the growth hungry cable industry realizes that won’t be enough to satisfy shareholders and Wall Street. So it’s no surprise to see collaborative efforts like the one announced by Charter and Cox concerning fiber connectivity links. The two large MSOs have agreed to connect each others markets through fiber rings in their Nevada markets of Reno and Las Vegas. Similar links are taking place in California, between Orange County and Los Angeles. Cox and Charter have previously relied on telecom carriers to establish connectivity between markets.

The collaborative effort will target enterprise customers who have multiple locations, with Ethernet and IP transport services. “This agreement brings a competitive choice to businesses that need to communicate with locations in other key commerce hubs in the western U.S.,” said Jim McGann, vice president and general manager, Charter Business. Cox has been quite active with their Ethernet solutions, and now ranks as the fourth largest provider of Ethernet services in the country. By partnering with Charter, they are able to expand services beyond their traditional footprint. Expect to see more collaborative efforts like this among cable MSOs, as they continue to try to compete with well entrenched telecom service providers, who have long viewed the business communications sector and the billions of revenue it generates as their own.