* TelCove unveils two IP VPN services
TelCove is coming out with two IP VPN services that can accommodate two different types of customers.
One service is based on VPN gear placed at each site and the other is based on VPN gear inside TelCove’s network. For customers who want VPN tunnels from site to site, the first option is what they would be interested in. Customers who want the VPN within the carrier network and who don’t want an extra box at their sites would choose the latter.
Both services are managed from TelCove’s network operations center in Cloudersport, Pa.
The services do have limitations, the most significant of which is geographic. If all the sites are in one of the 55 cities the provider’s network covers – almost all of them east of the Mississippi – then they can connect directly to TelCove’s network and can get TelCove service-level agreements (SLA).
Sites outside those cities would have to backhaul to a TelCove access router in one of the cities to get on the network. Otherwise, customers would have to buy separate Internet connections for sites outside the TelCove region and connect to the VPN via the public Internet. These sites would have no SLAs from TelCove.
The SLAs for customers on the network are 100% uptime, 65 milliseconds delay and less than 1% packet loss per month.
Customers who already buy meshed frame relay or ATM network services from TelCove could add sites using IP connections and have them connect to the frame and ATM sites. While the IP VPN services connect to these Layer 2 frame relay and ATM networks, the IP VPN segments are Layer 3.
Pricing for the services is based on the bandwidth of the access lines and the number of sites.
Many other providers offer similar services, and this one should be considered by customers who happen to have sites in TelCove-covered cities.
