ADSL bonding threatening Diginet
Vox Telecom recently launched its line bonding solution, called Fishbone, giving larger businesses a way to aggregate all their available bandwidth. The Fishbone service is typically used by corporate clients to bond multiple 4 Mbps ADSL lines, providing them with an affordable alternative to the traditional Diginet leased line offerings.
By aggregating multiple broadband lines businesses will experience far higher speeds than what they did with a single or even multiple 2 Mbps leased lines at a fraction of the cost. At around R 16 000 per month for a 20 Mbps connection using five ADSL connections, line bonding solutions provide a far better value proposition than traditional 2 Mbps E1 leased line services priced at around R 9 000 per line.
More expensive corporate access services line Telkom’s Diginet service or Neotel’s fibre connections have two main advantages over broadband services: dedicated bandwidth and very strict service level agreements (SLA).
When it comes to ADSL a line fault can take many hours or even days to fix, a situation that is unacceptable to a large corporation which is reliant on connectivity to function. One advantage of the line bonding technologies is that the individual ADSL lines do not affect the functioning of the system as a whole, a dead line will automatically be compensated for in the system.
While individual ADSL line faults are managed easily, it does not solve the problem of an exchange going down or copper theft influencing all the ADSL lines at the same time. To compensate for the lack of strict SLA’s, Vox can provide clients with a wireless backup solution which will ensure that a company remains connected even in the event of a total ADSL outage.
A further advantage of a line bonding solution is that the redundant connection, typically a wireless link, is also used with other connections and is not ‘wasted’ until it is needed as a backup solution.
Popular solution
The two major line bonding providers in South Africa, Vox Telecom and Technology Concepts, have both reported strong growth in the uptake of line bonding solutions. While Technology Concepts did not provide figures, the popularity of its solution prompted the acquisition of the company by Altech for a ‘maximum price’ of R 45-million.
Vox Telecom recently reported that they sold 23 units in the first month, and that most companies to which they demonstrate their Fishbone line bonding solution end up buying the product. According to Vox Datapro MD Gary Sweidan he expects even stronger uptake over the next few months.
Currently the Vox Fishbone solution is only available with ‘blended’ bandwidth, but the company is planning a ‘local only’ service to reduce the cost to companies looking to connect their branches or who only need to replace their current point-to-point leased lines.
Sweidan said that the Fishbone solution, using multiple ADSL lines, has been tested with high quality video conferencing and that the results have been excellent. The fact that so much bandwidth is available through the line bonding solution removes the need for expensive assured rate connections, Sweidan said.
Vox Telecom is currently developing its own video conferencing solution, set to be launched in the second half of 2009. Sweidan said that people can expect a very affordable price for this service which will be aimed at Government, large enterprises and small and medium sized businesses.
Providing more affordable high speed connections means that many companies are looking to replace their current leased line connections. While certain businesses may opt to retain their current Diginet or fibre lines due to the security of the strict SLA’s these service offer, there is no doubt that companies are looking at using broadband connections to serve their high bandwidth needs.
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