Forrester: - Making Leaders Successful Every Day

In Forrester's 62 criteria evaluation of 12 European MPLS-based WAN service providers, we found that COLT Telecom, Orange Business Services, and Verizon Business led the pack with the best overall combination of current offering and strategy. We ranked the remaining nine providers as Strong Performers, but in spite of the apparent maturity of the MPLS market, we found surprising differences between these vendors, each of which has its own market niche. BT Global Services has the greatest market presence and is winning the most new business, but AT&T is now a major challenger to BT for the largest European deals. Cable and Wireless offers end users an alternative to the four majors, and Easynet offers competitive pricing for lower-speed networks. Interoute and KPN have innovative solutions, Global Crossing is building on its success in the UK public sector, and T-Systems has the best infrastructure in Eastern Europe. Vanco uses a virtual network operator (VNO) model to leverage the networks of infrastructure-based carriers to deliver cost-effective services.