Wireless Connectivity

Cbeyond, an IT and communications services provider specializing in the SMB market, recently decided to deploy Actelis’ (News - Alert) Ethernet in the First Mile (EFM) over copper solutions to optimize the delivery of high-speed broadband solutions.

By leveraging Actelis’ EFMplus™-powered products, which include the company's Ethernet Access Devices (EADs) and Ethernet aggregation switches,  Atlanta-based Cbeyond (News - Alert) (News - Alert) will significantly increase its coverage area while minimizing its operating expenses—all while providing customers with broadband speeds of up to 100 Mb/s.

“Partnering with Actelis will help Cbeyond deliver advanced business-class services to help small business customers across the US boost productivity and grow,” Brett Burgett, senior director network engineering and architecture at Cbeyond, noted in a statement.

Actelis Executive Vice President Joe Manuele told Connected Planet that Cbeyond chose to partner with his firm because of the increased range associated with its Dynamic Rate Boost (DRB) technology. “It can go 80 percent further than standard EFM," Manuele said. Actelis’ DRB technology further optimizes transmission over multiple copper pairs, delivering 2x rate/reach compared to competing EFM solutions. “The combination of Actelis’ EFMplus and DRB technology provides significant performance advantages, enhanced reliability and substantial reduction of CapEx and OpEx,” added Manuele.

Before partnering with Actelis, Cbeyond depended solely on T-1 connections that required leasing expensive copper loops from other carriers. Cbeyond offers its customers service bundles, consisting of voice and data services, with bandwidth options ranging from 1.5 Mb/s to 4.5 Mb/s, Manuele told Connected Planet (News - Alert). “If they needed 4.5 megabits, they bonded multiple T-1s together," he stated.

As a result of its partnership with Actelis, Cbeyond will no longer need to rely exclusively on expensive T1 loops or endure the complexity associated with bonding T-1s together. The service provider will be able to acquire more cost-effective copper pairs from its carrier partner for as little as $7 per month. This will result in immediate cost savings, as T-1's can cost companies like Cbeyond as much as $140 per month.

Customers that required multiple T-1 connections may now be able to get by with a single dry copper pair. To deliver symmetric bandwidth of up to 100 Mb/s, carriers can bond as many as eight of these less expensive copper pairs. Cbeyond chose to embrace copper-based connections, rather than fiber, because of the deployments times and cost associated with copper connectivity, according to Manuele.

 “This segment—the T-1 replacement space—is much larger than the fiber-fed market. The reality is that most small and medium-size businesses need between 5 and 20 megabits. Ethernet over copper is significantly more efficient than leasing a fiber network-to-network interface.”

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