Updated List Of Carriers, Telcos and Pure-Play Companies In The CDN Business

With all the telcos and carriers that continue to enter the CDN business, I keep a running list on my blog that I update a couple of times a year. I also include the companies who I feel are non-pure play CDNs and have also indicated which CDNs have been acquired or shut down and which CDNs the telcos and carriers are partnering with. The list may not be 100% complete, but it's a good starting point for who's in the market.

Here's an updated list of CDNs in the market, broken down between pure-play CDNs versus non pure-play vendors like carriers and telcos. (To make the list easier to find on my blog, all you have to do is go to www.cdnlist.com for the latest update)

Non Pure-Play CDNs

• Alcatel-Lucent (acquired Velocix 7/09)
• AT&T
• Bharti Airtel (partnered with Limelight)
• Bell (working with Limelight)
• Broadmedia
• BT (was supposed to have launched in 2009)
• Deutsche Telekom (partnered with EdgeCast)
• Global Crossing (reselling Limelight and EdgeCast)
• Internap (acquired VitalStream)
• Interoute (acquired Virtue Media Services)
• KPN
• Level 3 (acquired CDN assets of SAVVIS, acquired Servecast)
• NaviSite (reselling EdgeCast)
• NTT Communications
• Pacnet (partnered with Internap)
  
• PCCW
• Reliance Globalcom (partnered with Internap)
• SingTel
• Tata Communications (partnered and invested in BitGravity)
• TeliaSonera
• Telecom Italia Sparkle (reselling CDNetworks)

Pure-Play CDNs

• Accelia
• Abacast
• Advection.net
• Akamai
• Amazon Web Services
• BitGravity
• BitTorrent
• CacheFly
• ChinaCache
• CDNetworks
• Cotendo
  
• Conviva
• Digital Fountain (acquired by Qualcomm 2/09)
• EdgeCast
• EdgeStream
• Grid Networks (merged with GMS 4/09)
• Highwinds
• Itiva
• Limelight Networks
• Mirror Image
• Panther Express (acquired by CDNetworks 2/09)
• PEER1
• Real Broadcast Network
  
• Technicolor
• Velocix (acquired by Alcaltel-Lucent 7/09)
• Voxel.net
• Vusion (went out of business 5/09)

Before anyone starts saying it's not fair to put all these folks on a list, please read my disclaimer in my last CDN post which explains many of the differences between the CDN vendors in the market.

Comments

[Stef van der Ziel]

Hi Dan, I asked this before: please add KPN to this list. This tier-1 telco operates a CDN since May 2010. The CDN powers streams (live and vod, flash, silverlight, 3G) for several large content owners including paid football matches, broadcasters and governments. If you want a larger list, let me know. For instance, you could add Telenet (cable operator from Belgium) as well, they have outsourced a dedicated CDN to StreamZilla, and it powers many content projects, including GarageTV.be, a UGC portal that has a larger market share than Youtube in Belgium.

[Dan Rayburn]

Thanks for reminding me. I remember they launched their CDN in the third quarter of last year and had a release on the wire about it.

[Wendy Kay]

You need to read LightReading Insider: Vol. 9, Number 9, Sep 2009. Four telcos have built their own CDN: AT&T, Verizon, Interoute, Level3 (bought Savvis, then expanded and enhanced it). Your article, "Telcos Not Yet Willing to Run Their Own CDN; Bharti Airtel Enters via Limelight" only mentions Level3 from this group of 4.

[Dan Rayburn]

Hi Wendy,

Yes, AT&T has built their own CDN, why is why they are on my list above. But AT&T has not done this in the past two years, like nearly all of the other telcos and carriers. AT&T has had their toes in the CDN space for nearly seven years now, so this is nothing new.

Verizon has not built out their own CDN - yet. Verizon has a beta version of a CDN in operation (using Velocix) specifically for customer like me on their FiOS network, but it is very limited is scale and functionality right now. Much of what Verizon does with CDN related business still goes through Akamai. Verizon is working on some very interesting CDN projects right now, but I can't go into any details about them as of yet.

Interoute does in fact have a CDN and should be added to the list. They made an acquisition six years ago to get into the business, so it is not new, but should be included.

[Paulo Gouveia]

Hello Dan,

Good Blog!

From what I understand ATT is also a re-seller of Akamai service.