I'm currently working on a multi-national VPN for a company and they have just had 2 new ADSL circuits installed....

1 in New York which is 8Mb down & 1Mb up for $159 per month with free install and free router and

1 in Munich which is 8Mb down & 768Kb up for 500Euros a month including install & router.

Puts BTs efforts into perspective......

There also appears to be an issue currently with BT ADSL. Approx a 1/3 of lines are having synch problems because of an issue between new and old line cards. BT have promised to sort it out soon....


Jeff

 

Is ADSL reliable enough yet for business use??

 

Difficult question.....

If you're looking for 24/7 guarenteed uptime with an SLA then no...However I have 5 or 6 clients who use it (with a VPN) as a very cheap Frame/Lease line replacement and it works well. There is always teething problems but when it is settled down it appears to be fine.

I have one client who we are currently working with to replace their existing 200 site Frame network with ADSL at the edges & a high speed Internet lease line (10Mb) at the core. Using redundant VPN gateways it is possible to build a reliable, high availability solution. They will be saving over £1M per year once its up and running and they are getting a disaster recovery site for free......

Does that answer your question ?


Jeff

 

Emm, confirmed my thoughts..ISDN backup me thinks

Thanks Jeff

 

There are a number of ADSL routers that have PSTN/ISDN backup and we tend to use the Netopia range for this type of business application as it also allows OOB management of the device as well.


Jeff

 

Just found some more info regarding the US ADSL .....

8Mb down 1Mb up, includes install, filters, router, fixed ip address range.
SLA at 99.9% (with penalties!) & maximum 10:1 contention ratio....all for $159 per month....

I think I'm moving

 

We'll catch up in a year or too (or 3)

 

Well, I finally get the chance to take ADSL when BT do my local exchange sometime in May.

Does anyone offer any more than 256k uplink speed? I'd like to host a couple of servers from home to use as testing before I move them to the rack in Telehouse (easier to fix as its a shorter walk!). Will probably keep the ISDN as a backup solution...

 

No.....

 

i think cable might provider higher uplink speed. just read that NTL is offering 1Mbit downlink for £49.99/month.

the uptake of broadband in the UK is so slow! germany had a late start on broadband (probably coz everyone was using ISDN) but they are catching up faster than the UK!

 

Jeff,

Which of the Netopia xDSL routers have ISDN backup? Looking for one at the mo for a customer site.

Anyone got any more details about the big DSL outage on Friday? Easynet was pretty much crippled by it.

Cheers,

Chris.

 

Doh, look and you will find. It's the R6100.

 

Chris

That's the one

 

I've read many times about other countries offering much better bandwidth than the uk when it comes to adsl.

Didnt really hit home till talking to a friend in sweden whos on 10 meg

 

Tell me about the ripoff! We're getting our DSL in the USA for some silly price, maybe 99 bucks a month, and it's way quicker than our connection here, which we are paying way more for. Think the USA connection is 512 up and down, though not 100 percent sure.

suffice to say that it's dirt cheap.

 

Chris

If you want a price on a Netopia R6120 then drop me a mail
giles.essame@essanet.com or giles@broadbandbuyer.co.uk

Giles

 

The thing that you have to remember about the cost of ADSL is what it costs the provider for the back-haul lease line to Telehouse/Telecity etc. In the UK lease-line costs are significantly higher than in the US so ADSL costs are higher.

I knew someone who had a E1 line into his flat in Manhatten (paid for by the company) 'cos it was cheaper for them to do that than to pay for the ISDN call charges (!).

What surprises me is that there has been no attempt by BT to provide higher speeds on ADSL. The equipment that they have in the exchanges is capable of 8Mb down/768Kb up. But if you think that this type of speed would start to look very attractive to Businesses who would then ditch their Lease Lines/Frame circuits, and who supplies 90% of fixed data circuits in the UK.......BT

So by doing this BT shot themselves in the foot ...The real problem is there is no competitor to BT for the vast majority of exchange areas so they can still do what they like.


Moan mode off

Jeff

 

I wholeheartedley agree with Jeff's statement.

We have 3 circuits here and between them give us about 3MB of bandwidth. The costs are huge, we're talking tens of thousands of pounds per year.

Now imagine if we could get an 8MB high-speed link for even half our costs; of course we're gonna drop the existing lines and go for the cheaper and faster solution. No wonder BT ain't in much of a hurry to change things.

I've seen BT on Newsnight and even Watchdog defending themselves and stating how they're a world leader in broadband services, but until there's decent competition it's gonna stay the same for a good while yet.

I think it needed someone like AOL to kick them up the @rse over ADSL to start the ball rolling.

another moan over

Stefan