Getting the best out of connectivity: questions to ask your provider
While South African customers are becoming more alert to risks and hidden clauses in the fine print of their connectivity contracts, many still find out too late that they should have been more diligent about asking the right questions before they signed.
So says Darren Morgan, COO at Comsol. Morgan says: “Too many organisations sign up with a particular technology or service provider believing it will be a good fit for them, without checking crucial details around the SLA and the service. They often miss some of the nuanced questions they should ask. This could result in them being locked into a lengthy contract after discovering their service is not a good fit for their business.”
Morgan recommends a number of key questions customers should ask:
Explain the SLA
Morgan says: “SLAs in our industry are very difficult to pin down. The problem is if you don’t ask questions about what’s included in that 99% or 99.5% availability in the SLA, you could get stung later on.”
“For example, if an FNO excludes third party fibre breaks and outages on the power grid, those two things effectively give them an out across the board. This means if there’s a major power outage, that SLA is put on hold. If there’s vandalism, theft or someone cuts their fibre, the FNO could say ‘this is a clock stop’. If this doesn’t meet the customer’s needs, they could still be held to the 36-month deal.”
Customers should ask ‘what happens if there’s a power failure – will you still honour your SLA? And if you have fibre breaks, am I still covered under my SLA?’
“Ideally, the FNO should take those clauses out and give the assurance that if there’s a fibre break, they will route your traffic another way,” he says.
How is the connection routed?
Morgan says another key question to ask is how the connection is routed.
“Customers need to know the logical path the fibre is routed on from their premises to the data centre or handoff point.
He says: “It’s important to ask the question if the FNO is taking you on diverse routes to the handoff point, and if there will be heavy packet loss if a break occurs. In many cases, if you haven’t opted for the top-tier service and there’s a break, you will be routed along the same path as everyone else, and your service will suffer.”
How redundant is the redundancy?
Morgan says customers should also look into whether their dual fibre connections share infrastructure.
He says: “A lot of people believe in the redundancy of dual fibre mediums. However, even with two fibre services from two independent FNOs, they might find that both services go down at the same time because there is common infrastructure somewhere along that path. It’s important to ask about this upfront and get guarantees around redundancy.”
Licensed or unlicensed FWA?
“In terms of Fixed Wireless Access (FWA), the obvious question to ask is whether it is a licensed or unlicensed service. To the layman, the SLAs of both may look exactly the same. However, it’s important that the customer asks what is driving the last mile, and whether it’s licensed or unlicensed. Customers should also ask about the redundancy and power backup supporting the connection. They should ask about power backup and whether the service provider has multiple backhauls,” he says.
What’s behind the SD-WAN?
Morgan says another important area to interrogate is the SD-WAN service. He says: “SD-WAN is a big watch word now, and everyone wants an SD-WAN solution. It’s very important to know what technology sits behind the SD-WAN, because if you have a fibre service backed with inferior LTEs, as soon as that fibre drops, you’re going to be dependent on the poorer services in the SD-WAN bundle. It’s important to ensure you have a quality fibre service and a licensed FWA wireless service as your two primary mediums within an SD-WAN bundle. You need to make sure you’ve got two really solid, very diverse technologies into your SD-WAN box.”
Comsol, the leading provider of FWA last mile connectivity and private networks in South Africa, offers advanced networks with connectivity and power redundancy built in, to support mission-critical business connectivity. Comsol recommends a hybrid approach combining technologies like licensed FWA, LTE, fibre, or satellite to ensure resilience.
For more information about Comsol, click here.
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