Windstream said it is undoubtedly the top SD-WAN service provider in the US with 3,200 SD-WAN customers representing over 27,000 endpoint locations.

"We remain the largest SD-WAN service provider in the country," said Windstream CEO Tony Thomas on today's earnings call, citing a 38% annual growth in enterprise strategic revenues. Strategic products and services includes SD-WAN, UCaaS and OfficeSuite UC, which bring in about $300 million in revenue annually.

"We continue to see strong momentum in our strategic sales, which include SD-WAN and UCaaS product offerings delivering 30% year-over-year strategic revenue growth," said Thomas.

Figure 1: Windstream CEO Tony Thomas
(Source: Windstream)

Windstream also laid claim to the title of largest SD-WAN service provider in the US back in the fall of 2018, reporting 1,000 SD-WAN customers and 12,000 endpoint locations.

The definition of SD-WAN managed service provider size varies – while some companies point to both their total SD-WAN customers and endpoint locations, others may define market share differently. Vertical Systems Group has yet to release its 2019 US Carrier Managed SD-WAN Leaderboard, but the 2018 leaderboard ranks Windstream as fourth among the leading managed SD-WAN service providers, behind AT&T, Hughes and Verizon.

Figure 2: Source: Vertical Systems Group

SD-WAN Leaderboard companies "had the highest market shares of installed Carrier Managed SD-WAN customer sites in the US as of year-end 2018" and were ranked by Vertical Systems Group according to installed and billable managed SD-WAN sites at year-end 2018.

Windstream reported that it brought in revenue of $1.24 billion in Q4 2019, down 8% from a year ago. Enterprise service revenues during the fourth quarter of 2019 were $623 million, down from $723 million a year ago.

CEO Thomas credited Windstream's SD-WAN success, in part, to the level of analytics it provides by way of its WE Connect Insight Engine, which "continuously gathers and evaluates data across all customer locations, creating a historic record and aggregates the data across a broad ecosystem to deliver enhanced visibility and reporting capabilities at a level unmatched in the industry."

In addition, Thomas said the WE Connect Insight Engine provides customers with "macro- through micro-level analysis and trends in their applications, network access and devices."

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— Kelsey Kusterer Ziser, Senior Editor, Light Reading