OTTAWA – “If you’ve got wired technology as your core, primary service, to have a redundant service that is also wired is almost nonsensical,” says Allan Laudersmith, vice-president of sales at TeraGo Networks.
Speaking at the Canadian Telecommunications Consultants Association Capitalizing on Collaboration event in Ottawa last week, Laudersmith says it’s imperative that a company have a mix of wired and wireless network services available. With two wired services – one primary and one redundant – a company will be without connectivity in the event of a construction mishap that cuts the lines because “they’re coming into the building through the same conduit.”
TeraGo is focused on providing broadband wireless connectivity solutions for the business market. Its main target is business and industrial parks where the incumbent telcos don’t have fibre. The company, which purchased more than 75 spectrum licences in the 24 GHz and 38 GHz in the 1999 spectrum auction, operates in 43 Canadian markets and has more than 5,300 customer connections.
Providing redundant network facilities is one of the challenges facing many companies today. Opting for a fibre solution comes with a price tag and it may take more time than the company can afford to deploy the network. As well, businesses that rely on DSL or cable as backups may not get the level of service they require.
Just because a consumer can get 50 Mbps for $100 per month doesn’t mean that a company will be able to rely on that service quality. Business-grade fixed wireless comes with service level agreements that can guarantee uptime and quality of service.
Despite the benefits of fixed wireless services, businesses can’t rely only on wireless and they will have to integrate or coexist with wired solutions, particularly when customers with multiple locations need to be connected, says Laudersmith. “Customers want one throat to choke, but the reality is you can’t get the same technology in all the locations and you are forced to look at wired and wireless solutions,” he adds.
The need for 100% connectivity uptime is also driving the need to adopt a wireless network as a redundant system. Applications such as Voice over IP, automated systems, private networking, ecommerce and access to FTP sites are increasingly essential and businesses could suffer if these services are down even for the smallest amount of time.
Laudersmith says a fixed wireless network can provide business customers what they’re looking for in terms of redundancy. It provides symmetrical bandwidth (download and upload are the same), low latency, dedicated high speed services for bandwidth hogging applications, 100% uptime, consistent service everywhere, scalability and quick repair times.
TeraGo offers a three hour mean time to repair, which, he says is significantly quicker than the four hours mean time to respond at one of his previous employers.
Laudersmith says it’s not about picking wireless over wired technologies, but ensuring that the business has the networks available to meet customer needs.
“It’s about wireless technology working together with wired technology to provide fully redundant customer solutions,” he says. “Fixed wireless is a viable primary alternative and a key secondary for true redundancy.”
