managed bandwidth solutions
Concentrate on what you do best. MetrofibreTM networx delivers Carrier Class Ethernet Managed Bandwidth (Layer 2) and Lambda Services that connects Service and Application Providers to their customers. Whether local, regional or International. Our Network is an Open Access Managed Bandwidth Service, open to all Service and Application Providers.
A World Class Managed Bandwidth Solution Times are challenging for all Service and Application Providers in Southern Africa. The dynamics of the industry are placing immense pressures on all organizations as they seek to meet the bandwidth, quality, technical and SLA requirements of end-customer networks. Everyone is trying to reduce their cost base, and to make the most of business opportunities quickly and effectively.
Metrofibre networx Managed Bandwidth Solutions will help you make the most of business opportunities. As your Long Haul, Metro and Last Mile Network partner you benefit not only from a highly secure “Open Access” Carrier Class Ethernet Network that is designed to provide a high-level of Performance Assurance (SLA) based on the Metro Ethernet Forum (MEF) Standard. We also help you build incremental revenues faster; and we extend your network capabilities further. And, we can do all that whilst, at the same time, helping you manage your operational overheads.
Many solutions span different topologies, regions and carry numerous different services and applications. By integrating, Long Haul Fibre Infrastructure with Metro and “Last Mile” fibre infrastructure.
Metrofibre networx is able to offer an integrated seamless solution to service providers. This Managed Bandwidth service is transparent in all aspects and delivers the required service, to the required destination, for the Service or Application provider, in essence, providing a “Cloud Networking Solution.”
Broadband Drivers for Southern Africa
Broadband growth around the world has been exponential with demand growing at exorbitant levels. South Africa has, for various reasons lagged behind even some developing nations in Africa. This can be ascribed to a number of reason, the main two possibly being GDP and geography.
The wholesale role-out of broadband is capital intensive, and, in the geographically dispersed regions in South Africa, extremely difficult.
Broadband Growth in the ROW
- Broadband subscribers have grown threefold in 5 years, from approximately 150 million in 2004 to almost 500 million by the end of 2009
- Europe has over 200 subscribers per 1000 people, whilst Africa is still struggling to get beyond 1 fixed subscriber per 1000 people
- China overtook the US as the largest fixed broadband market in 2008 and now has 6.2 subscribers per 100 people.
- In 2008 worldwide mobile broadband subscriptions exceeded fixed broadband subscriptions
- In 2009 over a quarter of the worlds population will have access to a computer at home
- Whereas, three quarters of households have a TV.
- In 2010 Finland declared broadband Access a human right.
Managed Bandwidth Solutions
Features - Benefits
- Full range of Services, which allow Service & Application Providers to Provide:
- Internet Access
- Voice Over IP (VoIP)
- Video Conferencing
- Priority Data Services
- Data Backup and Data Recovery Services
- Application Hosting
- Mobile Access and Backhaul Services
- Bundle VPN (VLANs)
- End-to-End Service Level Agreements
- Our SLA’s have been specifically designed to ensure customers uptime of the network and the end-to-end service traffic performance
- Performance Assurance Guarantees Levels of Performance Reliability based on:
- Quality (QoS) and Class of Service (CoS)
- Granular Bandwidth Options:
- 10Mbps-100Gbps
- Metro Ethernet Forum (MEF) Compliant Network:
- International accepted network, which guarantees service delivery across multiple operators
The Current situation is such that in South Africa the lack of ubiquitous broadband is the result of the legacy of a single operator monopoly, low GDP, geography and population distribution.
The problem is further exacerbated by the average bandwidth speeds delivered in South Africa, once again way below the norm. Way below the speeds required to deliver the latest drives for bandwidth, Pictures, Video and New business services.
When considering the amount of international bandwidth about to be presented to South Africa, the current infrastructure is not even remotely capable of adequately delivering international bandwidth to the current broadband population.
This incoming capacity reaches the Service Provider who has no access to a network infrastructure to adequately deliver this bandwidth. The networks in South Africa, and the Service Provider data centres have not been designed to facilitate this delivery of massive chunks of bandwidth.
In line with the growth of broadband has been the growth of social internet services, which in many ways, have become a necessary part of our daily lives and the way we do business.
In addition to the growth in social networks, the plethora of bandwidth hungry, business services also drive this need. For, without decent hi speed connectivity service providers cannot effectively deliver these services to the business masses.
The table below is an indication of the broadband penetration in South Africa at the end of 2008. These figures include DSL to the home. Penetration is way below the rest of the world and as a result local business is lagging with inefficiencies and poor productivity.
Commerce and industry is the main driver for telecommunications, as is evident if one considers the options in the main centres such as Gauteng, Durban and Cape Town in relation to smaller towns and cities. Furthermore, in these major centres, service and application providers are finding it more and more difficult to focus on their core business, services, and then on a network infrastructure to deliver these services.
Current Local Broadband Telecoms Status
- Little or no access to the proliferation of undersea cable international bandwidth landing in South Africa
- Industry is still reliant on legacy copper based infrastructure
- Generally there is very little, and in most instances zero access to fibre
- Metro Ethernet Connectivity is a Luxury in SA
- Fibre Infrastructure is expensive, few, if any, can afford to build
Metrofibre networx will provide the critical fibre “Last Mile” MetroAccess and connect this back into the Metrofibre MetroCore providing, on an “Open Access” basis, any to any Metro Ethernet connectivity.
This will give industry access to the proliferation of the bandwidth landed by the undersea cables.
Also, by interconnecting the MetroCore with Dark Fibre Africa, and other third party operators MFN can now deliver a highly managed bandwidth solution across
multiple service infrastructures, providing the vital “Access Layer” interconnecting all services and layers.
ON-Net Solutions
ON-Net implies that the building, or buildings, to be connected is directly connected to the MFN fibre infrastructure. (Maps can be provided which will indicate the areas applicable.) There are approximately 100 commercial areas designated to be saturated with MFN fibre over the next 24 month period. This saturation will continuously expand over time. For ON-Net solutions pricing is calculated based on the following criteria:
- A once off connection and activation fee
- SLA, which affects the network availability and repair time, per end point
- QOS, which is related to how MFN handle the data across the network, either Best Effort Data, Priority Data or Real Time Data
- Bandwidth, which can be anything from 2Mbps to 100Gbps.
OFF-Net Solutions
OFF-Net solutions makes use of third party infrastructure, typically DFA, to connect the remote premises back into the MFN fibre infrastructure. In these instances, the standard MFN pricing will apply as well as an additional cost based on distance from the MFN infrastructure. Additional impact on pricing will be as follows:
- A once off charge based on the distance to be trenched to connect the premises to a third party fibre
- A monthly charge, distance based, to connect to the nearest MFN aggregation point
The additional charges include all management and maintenance costs that may be required to ensure end to end network availability, even though, it includes a third party’s infrastructure to provide the total solution.
Within Gauteng, Metrofibre networx has an existing ring passing through all major commercial areas. Access to this ring is provided by Metrofibre networx last mile fibre.
