Fibre Leased Line Internet Connections Key Facts

This is key facts page notes important items to know about Fibre Internet Connections that Onega provides.

High Level Service Description:

Fibre Leased line Internet connections represent the cutting edge of commercial Internet access. They are fast; up to 10Gbps connections are now economic, and very reliable.

Availability and Suitability:

Fibre Internet connections are ideal for corporate use as a primary Internet connection for any office where any quantity of staff work, and are generally recommended if you have 10 or more staff members, and neccessary beyond that - especially if you rely on the Internet for your work. You may have a secondary Internet Connection alongside for fallback.

Availability is global subject to cost and ISP and telecoms providers networks. If you are in a city centre location then the chances are you will be well served by local access. Full Fibre services require a fibre to be run from the nearest Point of Presence (POP - commonly your nearest telephone exchange) to your offices.

Onega have systems that allow us to see what connections are available in your locality which dictates pricing and options.  If you have any doubts as to suitability please do discuss with us.

Fibre Bearer:

In order to provide service, a physical fibreoptic cable is installed into your comms room to then allow for router and other equipment (firewall etc.) to be connected. If there are already existing fibres run to an appropriate place, this can save a lot of time and work. Should there be no fibre already present then typically several fibres are put in at once so that in case of any one fibre fails there are spares, as well as provision for future services greatly facilitated (plus the cost of putting in a bundle of 4 / 16 / 32 fibres is typically only marginally more than a single fibre given that the labour will be the same).

Where new fibres need to come into the building (typically running from your closest telephone exchange), there will be a requirement for your landlord (unless you are fortunate to be a freeholder) will need to approve a wayleave agreement. This basically says that they give permission for the cables to come into the building and traverse the common areas and risers of the building such as to be able to get to your unit and comms room.

NB: If you are also negotiating a new tenancy with a landlord it can be wise to ask for pre-agreement to a wayleave at no cost as otherwise the landlord can demand a fee for this agreement which can be between £1000 and £4000 from experience. The defence from the landlord perspective is that it allows them to control the environment for the mutual protection of all tenants and ensure both standards and due health and safety measures are observed and definitely not just an excuse to charge you ransom money. Circuit providers may require site of building asbestos survey documents and landlords may request method statements and H&S documents. These are mostly standard documents that will be readily available.

If there are delays to construction work or wayleave agreement (if needed) then this can slow the installation of the circuit and push back installation dates. Fibre providers cannot be held to SLAs for matters beyond their control though everyone works to ensure that things happen smoothly, and here at Onega we help liaise and facilitate the process and any required papers for all.

It is an interesting fact to note that fibre optic cables degrade over time and as such have a working life of between 15 to 20 years on average before needing to be replaced. This contrasts with copper cables used for phone lines which can last 100 years or more (Some of the earliest phone lines are still in service on the original copper cables).

Committed Internet Connection Speed (CIDR):

Part of the cost of the connection comes from the provision of the actual fibre circuit, and part of the cost comes from the provision on the Internet Bandwidth. It tends to be that the costs of fibres stay relatively static due to the labour costs involved but the cost of bandwidth cost drops over time. Thus in costing a connection it is possible to provide a bearer with a higher capacity than is required and have a set amount of bandwidth provided to keep costs down and allow for future growth. Thus for example you might have a 100Mbps bearer (fibre that can run up to 100Mbps) with 50Mbps provided as the available speed. This can reduce cost and give you scope to increase speed later. Equally you could have a Gigbit bearer with 100Mbps capacity provided initially. This would cost more than a 100Mbps service on a 100Mbps bearer, but gives room to add 90% more bandwidth over time. The same is true for 10Gbps bearers.

The choice comes down to common sense, projected demand and economics - you would need a very good reason to order a 10Mbps service on a 10Gbps bearer for example. Onega staff will be happyt to run through options and choices so that the most sensible and suitable connection is arrived upon with you. Lately (as of April 2017) the cost of bandwidth vs fibre costs has dropped such that the difference between a 50/100 Mbps connection and a 100/100 Mbps connection is very marginal (maybe only £50 a month), so the logical choice may well be to go for full speed on such a circuit and benefit from the extra capacity which gives faster downloads when needed.

IP Addressing:

As standard (at no extra charge), we can provide a block of up to 5 usable static (fixed) IP V4
addresses. If more addresses are required, then this can be accommodated but a small additional
charge may apply. We (you and us) need to be able to jointly justify larger allocations of public addresses if a greater number are needed, as addresses allocations in traditional IPV4 space (current mainstream IP addressing) are becoming a scarcer resource. IP addresses in Europe are administered by RIPE, which is an organisation of which Onega is a member.

We will be able to provide IPV6 addresses once this is in common use, so the network can be deemed 'IPV6 ready'. Onega has an allocation of IPV6 addresses that are available for use if required.

SLA:

Onega shall be available to offer support for the service at no extra charge up to the handover point between a client's equipment and the Internet connection. The point of handover will be deemed to be the network point (normally an Ethernet Wall socket or router port) where the connection is presented within an office. Ie if a laptop can be plugged into the wall socket and connect successfully to the Internet through this, then the network is deemed to be up and
running.

We can provide assistance beyond that with PCs / Firewalls / Routers etc. but that is beyond the scope of the Internet service and would come under more general support. Internet connection SLA is 99.9% availability in any given month on a 24/7 basis, excluding any planned engineering downtime (which is normally late at night on the rare occasions when needed). Should there be any unplanned downtime beyond this level, then credits proportional the normal cost of service during this time can be claimed.) The characteristics of the engineering of the fibre connection are such that historically very high
levels of availability and performance are offered by these links.

A client has a responsibility to co-operate with basic troubleshooting steps should this be required in order to diagnose a problem and towards resolution. For example to confirm that equipment is powered or perform a requested power cycle. Once a problem is demonstrated to be a circuit fault it is escalated to the fibre provider who will work to resolve the problem in a timely manner. The specific SLA target time will be shown on a client contract schedule and beyond this pro-rata rebates are made to reflect the time the location is without service. It should be noted that there are common exclusions for circumstances beyond provider control such as exchange power cuts, builders digging through the road, and so forth. For example if a JCB does cut through all the fibres in the road it will take time to affect a repair. Thus if Internet is critical to company operation then we recommend either multiple redundant circuits which run from different phone exchanges and enter the building by a different side, or to have a 4G / Wimax / DSL / shared neighbour connection backup.

What happens if service delivery is not up to SLA levels? If service availability falls below standards then credits are issued for downtime beyond the time beyond the SLA target in a month. This credits for time pro-rata while the service is unavailable. Note that there are typically exclusions to this which include Force Majeur events and circumstances beyond control such as diggers going through fibres.

Installation and installation dates:

Lead times are typically 43 to 90 working days. This typically equates to two to four months. The reason for this is that the construction works with the fibre install and network side of things both need to be carefully engineered and co-ordinated. Where there is existing fibre available (as noted above) then the connection may be possible faster but there are never any guarantees of this. Upon acceptance of an order by a fibre provider a target installation date is issued. Onega will take care of IP Address requests, placing fibre orders & bandwidth. We help move the process on with co-ordination of survey visits and proactive project management.  95% of the time we are able to deliver Fibre connections within the timeframe of the initial target date.

Charges:

There are two parts to charges under leased lines. Installation costs and ongoing monthly costs. If your connection is installed for a minimum 36 month term then there is a very good chance that the install cost may be 0 as the fibre provider can re-coup their costs over the period, else if for a 12 month min term it can be several thousand pounds to install a connection. Either way it is important that (as far as can be foreseen) that the connection will be suitable and relevant over the contracted term to provide sufficient bandwidth for your needs.

Installation Costs: These cover the engineering and project management of a connection. Additional costs that may come up can include:

• Excess construction charges - if for example roads need to be dug up to get your connection in, which will be identified and communicated during the survey stage of provision.
• Costs for Landlord / managing agent costs in agreeing and issuing a wayleave for the connection.

Ongoing Monthly Costs: Once the service is live it is charged at the agreed monthly charge.

Payment:

Leased Lines are fixed price services and will normally be billed monthly with payments collected by Direct Debit unless another agreement is made and confirmed in writing.

Core Terms and Conditions:

Supply of Fibre Internet Connections is subject to Onega's Standard Terms and Conditions Document.

Additional Terms and Conditions:

Acceptable use, Legal use:

Subscribers are welcome to use the service in an unlimited fashion provided that:

1. You do not use the Internet Service for anything unlawful or Illegal.
2. You respect copyright laws (note that all web and download servers will log IP addresses which are traceable to source). You should only share files upon which you have express copyright permission or outright ownership on.
3. You do not use the service for anything that will be to the detriment of other Internet users. For example this would include not sending unsolicited email (spam) out using the connection (opt in mailing lists are fine).
4. You ensure that your computers are kept up to date and secure (patched and with AntiVirus / AntiMalware) to reduce the risk of them being abused by persons unknown (you probably want to do this anyway as part of common sense and best practice).

– Basically be nice!  

The above AUP is typical of what any Internet provider would ask for, no more arduous. If you would like to read an expanded AUP, then please have a look at http://store.virginmedia.com/the-legal-stuff/acceptable-use-policy.html for a full version, in
this case from Virgin. We reserve the right to mirror any aspect of a standard AUP. It is important to adhere to the above Acceptable use policy.

Failure to comply with this will initially normally result in a warning, and in case of serious or further non compliance, restriction of service (rate limiting or other rate shaping), or finally disconnection – which would not absolve you from the agreed financial commitment of the minimum term. We think that it is highly unlikely that this will ever be called for, but must reserve this as an option in case one party spoils things for everyone else. Act responsibly and this will never be an issue.

Minimum Contract Terms:

The minimum term of a Fibre Internet connection is communicated at quote stage. Generally these will be one of 12 / 24 / 36 month terms except from in exceptional circumstances if and as agreed otherwise clearly in writing. Everyone accepts a trade off that a trade off exists between flexibility and economy. For example a 12 month term is likely to have an install cost that a provider might be able to waive and amortise across a longer 24 or 36 month term. The start of the timing is the day that the service goes live (client handover date). We will work with clients to try and ensure that terms are appropriate to your needs based on the best available information to hand at the time. 

Notice Period: 

A minimum of 90 Days notice is required of termination of a leased line. Notice can be given no earlier than 90 Days before the end of the initial minimum contracted term.

FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions):

Q- What is needed to connect?
A- In order to connect to the Fibre Internet service you will need a router. Onega can provide this as part of the service on either a purchase or rental basis.  Beyond the Internet connection you will also need a firewall and network switch(es) and wireless Access Points. The chances are that you may already have these in place but we can help to provide / update if needs be.

Q - Can I operate a server?
A - Yes, as long as you don't break the Acceptable Use Policy. We would recommend that if you need to host a busy website, then that is best done on a dedicated server in a data centre or with public cloud infrastructure (Onega can help with that and Virtual Servers etc. if needed). This is so that any drop in your Internet does not take down your website and also keeps bandwidth free for you to enjoy from your office.

Q - Can I operate / connect to a VPN?
A- You are welcome to use the connection to connect to office VPN connections, normally this is used for remote workers to connect into your network when needed, and to connect two sites together. Onega can help with equipment and configurations to support this if & as needed. This would fall under network / firewall support rather than scope of pure Internet connection support though.

Q- Can I run Skype / VOIP on this connection?
A- Yes you can. VOIP is an emerging technology and is improving all the time. Note that a reliable VOIP link requires either a SIP service provider for a PBX (Onega can supply SIP trunks very competitively), Hosted VOIP PBX like Horizon which Onega supply and recommend or Skype connection at both ends. The internet often has many hops between two ends so it is not possible to guarantee the quality of voice / video calls in the same way as on a phone network, but most of the time VOIP works very well. Onega's current best advice is that ISDN lines (for an office PBX) provide the best voice quality and reliability. In case that Internet or phone lines drop, having the two provided separately is a good idea for minimising risk of both going at once which is a small risk otherwise. This differs if you have the Horizon solution as it allows for easy call forwarding to mobiles; so if your Internet connection dropped (and in turn IP Phones) then your calls can forward to your mobile phones.

Q- Is there any content filtering?
A- There is no content filtering on the connection so that everyone can decide what they wish to view or not. Filtering is normally achieved through your firewall in your office to keep everyone in the office safe online with real-time anti-virus, category blocking etc. 

If you have any other questions or there is anything we have not covered here please do get in touch and we will be happy to help.

  Thanks to Mike Seyfang for sharing the lovely fibre photo in our page header image.