General8.10.2012

Xtreme MPLS anyone? New offering from XDSL signals greater competitiveness in telecoms market in South Africa

Xtreme MPLS, a new offering from XDLS, a local Internet Service Provider (ISP), is a solution that puts a face to the shifting norms within the ISP arena and identifies closely with the standards customers are increasingly expecting from ISPs in South Africa i.e. more reliable, better quality, seamless connectivity and high levels of service. Xtreme MPLS, in contrast to many mainstream MPLS offerings, makes use of a multiple-network platform, offers high WAN security, as well as made-to-order levels of failover, network monitoring, traffic engineering and support.

Says Danie Fourie, director at XDSL: “The telecoms market in South Africa is morphing at extreme speed. Coupled with more fibre going into the ground and the masses of bandwidth that the landing of the undersea cables on our shores has brought, we are seeing a long-awaited perceptual shift among users – business and consumers. They are fast realising that there is considerable benefit to be had from engaging with ISPs that make use of multiple networks, can offer high levels of service and expertise, and fresh and innovative approaches to today’s multi-facetted converged connectivity requirements.

“Our Xtreme MPLS offering is designed to meet modern connectivity demands using leading edge technology approaches backed by world-class monitoring and support.”

The strength of its Xtreme MPLS solution has seen XDSL recently win a major client deal away from a more established ISP. Explains Fourie: “Our Xtreme MPLS solution will drive the local operations of this multi-national client. It not only cuts the cost of the solution considerably for the company (XDSL’s 2MB diginet pricing starts at R4400) but adds significant value, doubling throughput and capacity, introducing improved failover, and making cloud services a reality.”

A global leader in the provision of safety and security solutions, XDSL’s new Xtreme MPLS customer has more than 30 branches nationally. Connectivity is a vital to its corporate and field operations, and instrumental in ensuring the safety and security of its staff, and the people and assets it protects.

Says Fourie: “This client places a premium on speed, capacity, reliability and affordability when it comes to connectivity. Our Xtreme MPLS solution meets those requirements, providing a virtual private network (VPN) over a shared IP network, using the infrastructure (fibre, 3G and wireless) of multiple service providers with whom we have peering agreements and back-to-back SLAs. At each branch office, XDSL provides two ADSL lines, an IP Connect bundle for data and cloud services, and a 3G APN network.”

To facilitate hosting, monitoring and support, XDSL runs its own data centre and has a presence in three other major data centres nationally. It makes use of a 24-hour national operations centre to monitor quality of service, providing auto-failover on all links.

“This organisation’s key requirement was for a resilient and scalable multimedia communications solution that would provide a seamless interconnect between staff in the field, company branches and its head office nationally as well as internationally. As more businesses recognise the opportunity that growing telecoms infrastructure density in South Africa makes possible, and the competitiveness that agile and ‘well-connected’ ISPs like XDSL can offer, solutions like Xtreme MPLS will lead the field.”

XDSL has grown significantly over the last two years and is gearing for 200% growth in 2013. Concludes Fourie: “The telecommunications sector is moving forward rapidly. It’s no longer about the infrastructure, it’s about the services the ISP can provide on top of that infrastructure. XDSL has the expertise on board, the partnerships in place and a service philosophy that we believe will assist us to net an increasing percentage of business from large and small businesses that are looking for greater value at a competitive cost.”

Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter