Local first-tier ISP Satellite Data Networks (SDN) has signed a service agreement with Intermedia, a US-based integrated communications provider. The five-year Frame Relay service agreement gives SDN access to Intermedia's range of products and solutions that include Frame Relay networking, Internet, ATM and local and long distance services.
Through the agreement, SDN will give its customers access to the full range of Intermedia Frame Relay services. These include network tuning that correlates the service exactly to a client's application requirements, and a network alarm response that delivers a report on network outages. In addition, the rate of committed information rates (CIR) is customisable, so businesses pay only for what is needed.
Nalen Padiachy, joint MD at SDN, says the agreement adds value to the company's multi-service offering. "Intermedia is one of the largest Frame Relay companies in the US. The agreement gives our corporate clients the ability to have a permanent connection to their branches anywhere in the world. SDN will offer this permanent end-to-end connectivity, as well as service level agreements which will include management of the network.
"As the Internet market has matured, requirements have become more sophisticated and Frame Relay is in great demand," adds Padiachy. He says SDN adopted the service as a necessary and fundamental response to supply the company's multi-national clients, such as those in Europe and Australasia, which require termination outside of the US through cost-effective and reliable means.
Padiachy says that as SDN is the only ISP that has exclusively modelled its business around committed information rates, guaranteeing International Internet Access (IIA), preferential supply by SDN is fast becoming a reality. "Corporates want a serious connection and require integrity and enhanced speed. With international agreements like this, SDN can improve services and meet the high demands global businesses are expecting," he maintains.
According to SDN, the benefit of ATM to the customer lies in the savings incurred because Frame Relay eliminates the need to buy an entire private data network that consists of network management systems, switches and software. Instead, the user simply purchases access to a Frame Relay service provider's network, and pays a fixed rate for network transport.
The total access bandwidth that a user needs depends on the total traffic in and out of a location, rather than on the number of points connected. Intermedia, a US-based Integrated Communications Provider (ICP), recently bought Digex, SDN's first-tier Internet service provider in the US. Other deals between SDN and Intermedia include a five-year Internet service provision agreement.
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