Start-up delivers managed broadband-bonding service

A start-up with roots in the United Kingdom is looking to help U.S. companies squeeze better performance from their Internet connections.

Sharedband Technologies offers a managed service that aggregates multiple Internet connections -- such as DSL, T-1, cable, fiber and wireless -- into a single connection to deliver faster connection speeds and more resilient services.

So-called broadband bonding is a method of combining dissimilar broadband access technologies to form a single, virtual pipe. Connecting the links provides greater redundancy; if one of the bonded links fails, the bonding appliance can spread the traffic across the remaining links without interruptions. “If one connection goes down, all you see is a shrinkage in bandwidth,” says Emma Steinberg, vice president of business development for Sharedband.

Sharedband’s managed service is aimed at companies that want more bandwidth than a typical a typical DSL or cable connection can provide, but aren’t ready to commit to more expensive leased lines.

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A start-up with roots in the United Kingdom is looking to help U.S. companies squeeze better performance from their Internet connections.

Sharedband Technologies offers a managed service that aggregates multiple Internet connections -- such as DSL, T-1, cable, fiber and wireless -- into a single connection to deliver faster connection speeds and more resilient services.

So-called broadband bonding is a method of combining dissimilar broadband access technologies to form a single, virtual pipe. Connecting the links provides greater redundancy; if one of the bonded links fails, the bonding appliance can spread the traffic across the remaining links without interruptions. “If one connection goes down, all you see is a shrinkage in bandwidth,” says Emma Steinberg, vice president of business development for Sharedband.

Sharedband’s managed service is aimed at companies that want more bandwidth than a typical a typical DSL or cable connection can provide, but aren’t ready to commit to more expensive leased lines.

Businesses in rural area where it’s difficult to procure fast enough downstream speeds are often interested in using Sharedband’s hosted services, says company founder and CEO Paul Evans. “And some people have pretty lousy reliability on their broadband connections. That’s another key driver for people to buy this.”

Another driver is the appeal of incrementally scalable bandwidth. Sharedband can scale to increase capacity when there’s a need for it, then scale back down to save costs when the need subsides.

“If you need more capacity you don’t have to throw out what’s there,” Evans says. “You can add a line from another provider, add another low-cost Sharedband router, and you’ve essentially got expandable broadband.”

Sharedband can bond together different technologies from different carriers. For smaller ISPs that resell Sharedband’s managed service, it’s a way to differentiate themselves from the larger carriers,” Steinberg adds. “It gives them the ability to add value” by bundling different circuits.

When a business signs up for the managed service, Sharedband’s firmware comes pre-installed on off-the-shelf routers that Sharedband supplies. Each connection requires a dedicated router, which is then Ethernet-daisy-chained or connected via a switch with the others. Sharedband can aggregate up to 100 Mbps of total available bandwidth (up to four separate connections). Software hosted on Sharedband servers combines the streams of data from the multiple broadband connections.

Sharedband Technologies is based in Seattle and launched its first national service in the U.S. in March of this year. The company is a subsidiary of Sharedband Limited, a U.K. corporation that launched in 2007 and inked a reseller deal with British Telecom to offer its broadband-bonding software and services to ISPs in the U.K.

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