ISP claims proactive broadband management

BT ENGINEERS have been accidentally cutting off SDSL lines because they hear no dial tone, an ISP claims.

Fluidata's md, Piers Daniell, reckons his company is the only one to proactively warn customers that their SDSL is down.

Unlike ADSL - the standard form of broadband which most people have in their homes, SDSL is 'Symmetric'. So the upload speed is the same as the download speed - normally around 2 Mbit/s.

The other major difference is that SDSL isn't required to carry a traditional voice line. So when an engineer listens to the line, there won't be a voice tone. So an engineer can mistakenly think the line is dead and cut this off.

However, Fluidata can bond together different types of broadband connexion (ADSL and SDSL) - not only to increase data throughput speeds, but also to provide a 'fail over' service.

To offer what the company calls its 'Purefluid Burst' service, Fluidata installs a small Linux box in the customer's premises. The box is constantly monitored and if an SDSL link is broken, for example, it triggers an alarm.

The company then proactively calls the customer - who may not have noticed, and tells them to contact their SDFSL provider.

Daniell claims his company is unique in calling small to medium sized businesses to warn them of a failure.

Incidentally - for the power hungry - Burst can offer a download speed of 22 Mbit/s and an upload speed of 4 Mbit/s.

It also provides its service on a 1:1 contention rate. In other words, your broadband doesn't slow down on Monday mornings or during peak evening hours. µ

L'INQ
Fluidata