* Business-grade broadband options proliferate
You might recall our recent discussions of using DSL and cable modem service as backups to one another as an inexpensive high-availability configuration for small offices. Some readers responded that lack of availability of both types of services in given geographies tended to preclude the use of this configuration. Some also didn’t want to manage separate carriers (both for tech support and billing) at their various sites.
Noteworthy on this subject is that, recently, MCI expanded its broadband services portfolio to include high-speed cable access. The carrier says that between DSL, cable modem and satellite service, the MCI business-grade broadband network reaches about 90% of all U.S. business locations, with cable modem “filling in” about 4% of the footprint.
MCI, then, has made strides in overcoming some of the difficulties our readers mentioned by adding cable services in business areas and allowing enterprises to get both services in a one-stop-shop scenario. Such services are especially appropriate for businesses with lots of locations that are small and need continual Internet and/or VPN connectivity (such as retailers, service organizations and companies with teleworkers).
Via a wholesale relationship it has with New Edge Networks, MCI is reportedly serving as an aggregator for asymmetric cable service from Charter, Cox Communications and Time Warner Cable at download speeds of 768K to 1.5M bit/sec (depending on geography) and 256K bit/sec upload speeds.
Now if the DSL-cable scenario still doesn’t work for you, you might wish to start investigating broadband wireless as a second link (wireless can serve as your primary link or as your back-up link). Though WiMAX-certified standard services for broadband wireless access are not available yet, precursors to the services with virtually all of the same features are available from carriers such as Midwest Wireless in the Midwest, TransAria in the Northwest, TowerStream in the Northeast and WiLine Networks in the San Francisco Bay Area. FYI, many of these providers also offer wireless VoIP services.
