Welcome to GeoQuote by FiberGuide!
GeoQuote is a free, easy to use patented tool from Telarus that lets you find price quotes from business Internet providers. Dedicated Internet access, multisite connectivity solutions such as Ethernet private line, integrated services and other network services can be accessed through GeoQuote. Select a carrier service of choice in the form above and enter all the information requested. You will be directed to a secondary form to select more options after which you will be provided with a list of available service options near you. Some services may require an agent to generate the quotation to be emailed to you within one working day.
Popular services found in GeoQuote include:
The availability of a huge number business Internet providers offering competing high quality access at blazing speeds is enabling a lot of innovation. The demand for higher speed access is not only limited to large enterprises. Easy access to high speed Internet is enabling Small to Medium Enterprises (SMEs) opportunities previously reserved only for large enterprises. Global market reach and access to cloud services that previously required exorbitant on premises infrastructure are now possible for SMEs.
GeoQuote, through FiberGuide, offers a rich database of business Internet providers in all parts of the Unites States. A small number of business Internet providers found in GeoQuote also offer Internet access and IP transit services from other parts of the world.
If you run GeoQuote, you may be overwhelmed by the number of business Internet providers that offer multiple technologies and different bandwidth pricing packages. There are a lot things to consider when selecting a business Internet provider for your access to the Internet. One consideration is the type of Internet access – whether it is dedicated Internet or mass market broadband. Performance is a critical consideration as businesses should consider bandwidth, whether the bandwidth is symmetric or asymmetric and whether the provider offers quality of service (QoS) guarantees. Another important consideration is the Internet access technology used by the provider. In the following paragraphs, some of these attributes are summarized.
Mass-market broadband is the type of service you most likely use at home. The most commonly deployed mass market broadband service in the USA in cable, technically referred to as hybrid fiber co-axial (HFC). The service is typically shared by a number of subscribers in a given community.
With mass market broadband, the providers understand that not all users in a given area will be online simultaneously. As a result they oversubscribe the bandwidth in order to make most efficient use of it. The connection speed will therefore fluctuate as a function of the number of people online.
These services do not typically come with Quality of Service (QoS) guarantees. Attributes, such as latency, jitter, packet loss and availability may not be specified. The services are also mostly asymmetric – upload speed is lower than download speed. This is because most users are expected to download information more than they upload it.
When marketed as business broadband, mass market broadband is packaged with other essential business features. These include multiple emails, fixed IP addresses, training and 24×7 customer support.
Business broadband is inexpensive and is adequate for many personal and small business applications such as email access, surfing the web, remote access and other less demanding applications. However, for more mission critical applications, dedicated Internet access is preferable.
High bandwidth hungry applications such as cloud access, data center access, 4K video conferencing and high quality Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) require dedicated Internet access.
With dedicated Internet access, the subscriber has exclusive access to the connection between their premises and the Internet service provider. There is no sharing of bandwidth. DIA typically comes with the following important features:
Guaranteed bandwidth: Your company is guaranteed the bandwidth you subscribe to. If you sign up for 1Gbps, you should expect to get 1Gbps at all times.
Symmetric bandwidth: With symmetric bandwidth, download speed and upload speed are the same. This is important for many business applications such as VoIP and cloud access.
Service level agreement: All providers in GeoQuote offer Service-Level Agreement for their dedicated Internet services. SLA defines the level of service expected by the client and offered by the business Internet provider. It provides some metrics by which the quality is measured. Typical elements of a SLA include:
Availability (or uptime) : The percentage of time the service is expected to be up. Typical availability levels offered by GeoQuote business Internet providers range from 99.9% to 99.999% (the so called 5 9s). As trivial as it might sound, the number of decimal points is very important for mission critical applications. While 99.9% uptime translates to 9 hours of downtime per year, 99.999% uptime translates to only 5 minutes of downtime a year. Some IT managers are prepared to pay a high premium for the higher uptime level.
Latency: Latency defines the time taken by data packets to travel from their origin to their destination. Certain applications including high frequency trading, gaming and VoIP are very vulnerable to latency.
With VoIP, latency comes across as a noticeable delay between the time you talk into a handset and the time you hear a response from the called part. At 250ms latency, delay starts to be noticeable. It starts to get irritating at 300ms and becomes a total nuisance at over 500ms.
Jitter: With fixed latency, at least parties to a conversation expert the delay and can quickly adjust to it. Unfortunately, latency can change randomly as a function of time. The change in latency is called jitter and makes it even harder to communicate.
GeoQuote business Internet providers offer Internet access over a wide variety of technologies. DSL, Cable (hybrid fiber co-axial), T1 lines, mobile wireless, fixed wireless, satellite, Ethernet over fiber, Ethernet over copper and passive optical networks are some of the most common technologies used. In the paragraphs below, a section of the wireline technologies used are summarized.
A passive optical network (PON) is a point to multipoint architecture. Unpowered (or passive) splitters are used to divide bandwidth from a central office to multiple premises. PON networks can be configured as Fiber to the Home (FTTH), Fiber to the Building (FTTB) or Fiber to the Cabinet (FTTC). As the name suggests, FTTH serves homes while FTTB is used for multi-dwelling units. In FTTC, fiber is run to a cabinet from which twisted copper pairs complete the local loop.
Current PON networks can deliver a throughput of 10Gbps and the actual bandwidth available to individual subscribers depends on the number of premises sharing a PON. Verizon, the largest FTTH network provider in the USA can deliver up to 1Gbps of download and upload speeds in selected communities. In the FTTC configuration, typical maximum bandwidth per subscriber is 400 Mbps. The length of the copper link from the premises to the cabinet has a profound impact on the bandwidth that can be delivered.
Most people only think of Ethernet as the connections to our computing devices and in local area networks. Indeed, Ethernet was first developed to connect computers to peripheral devices and for other local area networking.
The high success of Ethernet in the local area network, its flexibility, its ubiquity and its low cost per bit has compelled the industry to push the technology into long distance or wide area network applications. The transmission of Ethernet in the wide area network is marketed as carrier Ethernet. Almost all fiber network providers in GeoQuote offer carrier Ethernet for a number of applications including connection to the Internet.
If your building is already connected by fiber, chances are that you have access to Ethernet over Fiber. Run GeoQuote to find out if your building is on-net or is connected to optical fiber. Typical Ethernet over Fiber bandwidth ranges from 10 Mbps to 10 Gbps.
For buildings that are not already connected to fiber, the provider can install fiber from the building to the nearest Ethernet point of presence. With current International standards, Ethernet over fiber off-net links of 80km can be installed.
Although the number of network providers offering Ethernet over Fiber is mushrooming, they don’t meet the large market demand. Moreover, Ethernet over fiber may come at a large premium beyond the reach of small businesses. Ethernet over copper is more readily available at a lower cost.
Ethernet over copper is a type of Ethernet delivered over last mile twisted copper pair. Ethernet over Copper lines are exclusively reserved for the service and do not share the phone line like DSL.
The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) has specified the delivery of 10 Mb/s over a reach of 750m and 2 Mb/s over a reach of 2.7km. Bonding or the aggregation of multiple pairs of twisted into a single connection can increase maximum bandwidth. Up to 100 Mbps is possible and many GeoQuote providers can offer up to 50 Mbps Ethernet over copper services.
Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) is provisioned over the regular phone line. Most homes or businesses with a copper phone line can be provisioned with DSL service. DSL may or may not come with guaranteed speed and QoS and the onus is on the subscriber to ensure that QoS can be guaranteed if needed. In many cases, DSL is also offered as an asymmetric service or ADSL although most modern variants such as ADSL2+ and VDSL (very high bit-rate DSL) are symmetric.
Cable or Hybrid Fiber Coaxial (HFC) is readily available in most premises in the United States. Cable broadband is one of the most ubiquitous Internet service offered by business Internet providers in the USA. Providers typically bundle cable broadband with other services such as hosting, emails and IP addresses. Business cable may or may not come with dedicated bandwidth and QoS. Again, the onus is on you, the subscriber, to find out from the provider or to make a query through GeoQuote to determine if these guarantees are available.
T1 lines based on Time Division Multiplexing (TDM) have been around since the 1960s. Although their pricing has remained relatively high (~$200 for 1.5Mbps) in competitive markets, they remain hugely popular. For some businesses it could be their only form of dedicated Internet service with guaranteed bandwidth and Quality of Service (QoS). Because T1 services are transmitted over twisted copper pair, almost every premises with a fixed line can be provisioned with the service.
Ethernet private line (EPL) is a point to point connection that enables high performance and secure connections between two points. It is today’s alternative to the almost obsolete TDM private lines and older packet switched technologies such as frame relay. Ethernet private line can be used for any application that requires a point to point connection, including connecting a premise to a business Internet provider. Connect locations within the same metropolis, anywhere in the country or anywhere in the world. Data rates range from 10 Mbps to 100 Gbps.
Clients who chose to procure Internet access and other connectivity services through GeoQuote can count on FiberGuide. A product specialist will work with you to match your requirements with the most relevant network or business Internet providers. Because we have a relationship with a large number of network providers, we are better placed to negotiate the best pricing for you. We are a free resource for you during the procurement process through implementation.
FiberGuide specializes Wide Area Network services including Internet access, Ethernet, VPLS, SD-WAN and other related solutions.