The November 29, 2016, Telarus Tuesday Call brought Telarus co-founder Patrick Oborn in for a rundown on fiber. The entire presentation can be watched here.
Fiber can connect your customers to the internet, other on-net locations in a point-to-point, or a meshed private network. Speeds range from 10Mb on the low end to 40 Gb on the high end. Upload and download speeds are symmetric, unlike cable, and bandwidth is also dedicated.
Why is Fiber so Popular?
I would guess that even people that live under a rock have heard about fiber in one way or another. Here are some reasons why it is all the rage:
Constitution: Glass
The cable is made up of strands of incredibly thin optically pure glass that carry digital information with light instead of electrical currents used with Ethernet.
Interference: None
Optical fiber cables work through the transmission of light, interference from electronic devices isn’t a concern. Additionally, since they don’t conduct electricity, fiber optic cables are ideal for high voltage locations.
Security: High
Light doesn’t create an electromagnetic field when it travels through the cable, making it extremely difficult to intercept information without physically tapping into the cable.
Speed: High
A single optical fiber strand has been shown to transmit data at a rate of 100 terabits per second. So transferring data across the world at the speed of light is no problem.
Fiber Growth Trends
Telarus has been selling fiber since 2011. We have over $7M in monthly fiber billing. Fiber takes the longest to install (typically 90-120 days with some even longer), but it’s also the most sticky product we offer.
What Can Fiber Do For You?
From a network perspective, what can fiber do for you and your clients?
- Ethernet Dedicated Internet (EDI)
- 100MB x 100MB for as little as $874/month
- Speeds up to 10 GB x 10 GB / SLA / Dedicated
- Wide Area Ethernet
- Can connect two on-net locations, anywhere in the USA (ex: office in Miami connects to a data center in Utah, Layer 2)
- Ethernet Private Line / Virtual Private Line
- Private Layer 2 connectivity within the same region
- Rules of Engagement Difference
- Carriers often employ different ROEs for fiber sales than they do for their other products. Many employ deal registration, so BE CAREFUL!
Fiber Offers Route Diversification
Fiber helps people build wide area networks in a way that offers them geographically diverse routes. For example, it offers:
- Different physical entrances to buildings
- Different transport paths
- Paths that don’t touch any central offices
Telarus Fiber Provider Portfolio
There are several different tiers of fiber providers. Some own their fiber in the ground for example. So if you want to access that fiber, you either have to buy it right from them or buy it from someone that has a wholesale agreement with them. Examples of these typical CLEC telco-type owners of fiber would include ACC Business, Broadview, Electric Lightwave, CenturyLink, Cogent, XO, Zayo and the others you see listed on the left side of the image below.
The second tier of fiber comes from cable companies that have become fiber operators only in the past five years. The thing about cablecos is that they have built their backend networks even though they have coax from the plant to the actual customer prem, from the plant inwards is all fiber.
The third tier of fiber providers are regional. Regional fiber providers are a great choice for fiber if you have an opportunity just in a smaller geographical region.
The fourth tier are fiber resellers found on the right side of the image below. If they don’t have the fiber in their reach, they can go through their NNI’s and or wholesale agreements and get the fiber to complete the solution. A few of these straddle the line of operators and resellers like Birch, TelePacific, EarthLink, and Expereo. Get on with the owner. If rules of engagement block you, try a reseller. If the customer wants one bill, many hosted VoIP providers can also resell fiber.
Telarus Fiber Tools
In 2011, when fiber was really gaining traction with our partners, Telarus knew there had to be a way to allow partners to see where fiber was available. Using our in-house software developers, Telarus built some awesome and truly unique tools available uniquely to partners.
GeoQuote® Fiber Pricing
Telarus partners can now get their fiber pricing in our patented real-time pricing GeoQuote® tool.
GeoQuote® Fiber Map
To visually see fiber in a mapping tool similar to Yelp where you can click on a location and see which suppliers are available, this tool has proved to be incredibly valuable.
Telarus App with Fiber Mapping
How Fiber Costs are Calculated
- Port Cost (cost to connect the user to the internet)
- Construction costs
- Outside wiring (subterranean, power poles, etc.)
- Line extension
- Line splicing
- Cost of permits
- Termination equipment costs
- 1 Gb port vs. 10 Gb port
- Juniper vs. Ciena
- Revenue = MRC x Contract term
Telarus Fiber Comes with Circuit Monitoring
Even though the circuit is dedicated, that doesn’t mean that an edge router can’t lose power, a core router can’t have an issue, or a fiber line can’t be cut by accident. Telarus-sourced means free circuit monitoring. Below is a sample of some issues caught by VXSuite circuit monitoring.
Cloud Connectivity
You can get fiber now from your client’s office direct to many options of cloud providers like Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Cloud, IBM Cloud and more. For more information on cloud connectivity, read it here.
Need Help Selling Fiber?
Fiber is booming for all the right reasons, and if you don’t feel like you can confidently speak to your clients about fiber solutions for whatever reason, white-label our Telarus engineers or consult with your regional vice president.
