Ethernet
Our Ethernet services provide high speed, high reliability, links to the internet and between sites with a coverage of approximately 90% of UK business addresses. Typically customers will buy 10Mb/s symmetric (both ways at once) connected via 100Mb/s fibre to allow quick upgrade to faster speeds when needed. Because we use real fibre-optic links, we are able to offer speeds of up to 10Gb/s if required. A 2M-10Mb/s burstable internet service starts from as little as £650/month (+VAT) and is typically around £1000/month (+VAT). We can provide a quote based on your specific location. Alternative copper access can provide services at a lower price such as £250/month (+VAT) for 1Mb/s symmetric which compares well with SDSL.
Fibre Ethernet
Unlike some fibre broadband services you may have seen advertised, the fibre Ethernet service we offer involves a fibre-optic link right in to your business premises. A fibre-optic link offers several advantages over a copper link (a) it is faster allowing speeds up to 10Gb/s if you really wanted (b) it is massively more reliable, being not subject to radio interference or the weather. At speeds of 100Mb/s, once the fibre gets to your premises the termination equipment will convert it to a normal RJ45 ethernet connector to connect to your firewall, router, or switch.
Copper alternative
Whilst the service is normally provided on fibre, there is sometimes an alternative available using multiple copper pairs. This can provide 1Mb/s symmetric, 2Mb/s, etc., up to over 10Mb/s in some cases. Unlike ADSL it is not rate adaptive or asymmetric. It is usually cheaper to install and run but clearly lower speed than fibre. This can work out very cost effective compared to SDSL as well as faster and with unlimited usage.
Internet access
The most common service we offer is internet access, typically starting at 10Mb/s symmetric (both ways at once). This provides a high reliability internet connection. Being 10Mb/s uplink as well means you can sensibly host servers or equipment on the end of your link. The fibre link is normally 100Mb/s which allows you to increase from 10Mb/s at short notice. We can route IP addresses to you as required, or announce your own IP addresses received by BGP. We can also provide provider independent IP address space if you need, and provide equipment and consultancy on BGP routing and firewalls. Whilst 10Mb/s is common, we can provide speeds up to 100Mb/s in 10Mb/s steps, up to 500Mb/s in 100Mb/s steps and 1Gb/s or 10Gb/s services if required. We can provide multiple independent internet access on a link to you at the same time, each of different speeds if you like, which may make sense if one is dedicated to VoIP to be separated from general internet access. As with our ADSL service, we do not block any ports or protocols.
Site to site
We can also provide site to site access. This means two sites that have the service are connected together at a speed of your choice. The link between the sites is Ethernet, so allows any protocols or addressing you like. You can have site to site access and internet access at the same time and VLANs are used to separate the traffic on the link to your premises. We can provide multiple site to site paths at the same time if you require (perhaps for separating VoIP traffic, or multiple sites). It does not matter how far apart the sites are, and there are no usage charges for traffic transferred.
We can also provide lower cost dedicated direct site to site links within 25Km at speeds of 100Mb/s, 1Gb/s or 10Gb/s.
All you can eat
Within the selected speed you can transfer data as much as you like, so if you have a 10Mb/s link you can transfer 10Mb/s each way constantly 24 hours a day with no extra charges or fair usage policy coming in to play. The links to us, or between sites, are un-contended so not shared with anyone else and so will not slow down at peak times. This really is an unlimited usage service.
Burstable service
We can also offer a burstable service. This guarantees an un-contended, all you can eat, throughput as above, but allows you to burst traffic to 5 times that rate. The additional capacity is shared with other users on our transit and over the BT core. If you use over the guaranteed rate for several hours the speed will drop but never below the guaranteed rate. The burstable service is ideal for normal office internet access as the nature of internet access is often bursty with quite a low average throughput.
How to order
The service is available now - why not try the quick quote to get an idea of pricing. If you would like to order contact our sales department who can provide a more formal quote and progress your order.
