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Broadband Access
MegaPath targets the sub-10 Mbps market with new SMB offerings
Niche carrier launches symmetrical bonded T1 and Ethernet over copper services
by Doug Allen
MegaPath continues to round out its SMB portfolio with sub-10 Mbps services designed for mid-end, collaborative business customers. Hot off the heels of its bonded T1 option for its 3 Mbps Duet voice/data service announcement (see MCG Architecture strengthens bond with MegaPath), the niche provider is pushing the bandwidth envelope slightly, launching a managed 4.5 Mbps and 6 Mbps bonded T1 service, with symmetrical rates up- and down-stream. At the high-end of this mini-spectrum, MegaPath’s new managed Ethernet over copper service runs at 10 Mbps for Internet access.
Together, the new offerings give SMBs an attractive higher-bandwidth alternatives to its existing T1 and xDSL portfolio, short of costly full or fractional DS-3 links (MegaPath resells DS-3 circuits), regardless of fixed transport infrastructure. Running Ethernet over copper is another cost-saver, since fiber-fed Ethernet is more expensive and far less deployed (just 15-20 percent of U.S. businesses are on-fiber) than good old, ubiquitous copper.
The Ethernet over copper service comes with a relatively strong SLA, at least for the trickier EoC protocol, including 24x7 customer support, CPE, 99.99 percent availability, a four-hour mean time to repair, one static IP address with the option for more, and guarantees for bandwidth, router, and particular business services such as DNS hosting, 50 email accounts, and 100 Mbps of Web space. The availability SLA carries a 1 percent monthly recurring charge MRC credit for each incremental percentage point under the SLA guarantee that the circuit was unavailable for that month with a 100 percent MRC credit if the link’s availability falls under 50 percent. The penalty for missing the mean-time-to-repair SLA is 10% of the MRC.
The bonded T1 services are available across 3,000 central offices nationwide, while the Hatteras-powered EoC service are fed from 400 COs, targeting the big Tier 1 U.S. markets. The underlying protocol is Multi-Link Point-to-point Protocol (MLPPP). However, competition in this space is tough, and getting tighter. XO, Qwest and Embarq already offer Ethernet over copper, as do smaller niche players like Cavalier, Integra, NuVox and Speakeasy, although some carriers are wholesaling the service from another carrier. When it comes to bonded T1 services, the RBOCs, Covad and the afore-mentioned Speakeasy are all players, while MSO Time Warner Telecom can bond 5 or 6 T1s to reach rates of 7.5 or 9 Mbps.
“The carrier’s coverage is largely concentrated in the northeastern U.S. corridor between Washington, D.C. and New York as well as the West Coast (Los Angeles, San Francisco/San Jose, and Seattle),” writes Cindy Whelan, a senior analyst with Current Analysis, in a recent intelligence report. “This puts the carrier in direct competition with competing carriers and cable operators that are also targeting these markets with high-capacity connectivity offers.”
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