Introduction
Giganet ELITE is the name for Giganet's business-grade, uncontended and dedicated leased line services.
These are the preserve of those organisations that demand the very best connectivity, or who are located in areas where broadband infrastructure leaves a lot to be desired, and therefore a leased line is the only option.
ELITE services utilise Ethernet technology end-to-end unlike broadband. This offers better performance.
ELITE Specification
- Uncontended bandwidth - this means that the bandwidth offered on the leased line is all yours, dedicated to your organisation, and will no slow down during peak times.
- Symmetrical speeds - this means that the upload speed is the same rate as the download speed.
- Unlimited transfers - there are no data caps or limits.
- 24x7 support - we provide access to our support team 24x7 for critical service-affecting issues.
- 5-6hr fix SLA - depending on the carrier, we offer a guaranteed fix time of 5 - 6 clock hours.
- Managed router - we provide a carrier-grade Juniper router that allows us to proactively monitor your connection, assist us with troubleshooting, and can also be used to provide Quality of Service (QoS) for voice and other business applications, multiple VLANs, and MPLS PWAN routing functions.
- Option to upgrade - depending on the committed data rate (CDR) chosen and bearer bandwidth, customers can upgrade their speeds/bandwidth mid-term.
- Nationwide availability - subject to survey, ELITE leased line are available anywhere in the UK. The installation costs may be significant in remote areas where fibre infrastructure is lacking.
ELITE Carrier Options
Giganet connects to over 11 national Ethernet carriers that are used to deliver the ELITE services to customers:
- BT Wholesale
- Colt
- CityFibre
- Entanet
- Giganet Local via Openreach
- Glide
- SSE
- Sky
- TalkTalk Business
- Virgin Media
- Vodafone
Why is there so much choice?
Different carriers have installed their their network infrastructure in different parts of the country due to competition, historic network build, and latterly government broadband schemes and private investor interest in fibre infrastructure build.
For instance CityFibre may be building their own fibre network in places such as Edinburgh and Bristol, whereas Virgin Media have presence in Southampton. In London, there are a huge number of fibre operators competing, including Colt.
However, in most of the UK, the incumbent telecoms operator (BT) Openreach have infrastructure in most corners of the UK, operating from over 5,500 exchanges, and many millions of copper and fibre route miles. This network was opened up in the late 2000s by Ofcom and Local Loop Unbundling or LLU was born. This encouraged a lot more competition for broadband as well as leased line services. Therefore a large number of the carriers we work with have unbundled the Openreach exchange, but use Openreach firbe for the 'last mile delivery'.
Local Loop Unbundling/LLU
As Openreach has so much network reach, Ofcom in the 2000s decided to regulate that Openreach open up their exchanges and make the local loop of fibre and copper available to third party network operators. This is where the arrival of Sky, TalkTalk, Vodafone and others arrived out of. So a large number of the carriers we work with are LLU providers who have their own network infrastrcuture in the local Openreach exchanges, and from which they lease Openreach fibre to our customers.
In our Giganet Local areas, we are an LLU provider, and we have direct access to the Openreach network to reduce the supply chain even further. This helps increase speed of delivery and improve pricing.
Carriers we work with and fibre they use
| Carrier | Last-mile fibre they use |
| BT Wholesale | Openreach |
| Colt | Colt |
| CityFibre | CityFibre |
| Entanet | Openreach |
| Giganet Local | Openreach |
| Glide | Openreach/Glide |
| TalkTalk | Openreach |
| Sky | Openreach |
| SSE | Openreach |
| Virgin Media | Virgin Media/Openreach |
| Virtual1 | Openreach |
| Vodafone | Openreach |
Leased lines vs Broadband Comparison
The below is a comparison between Giganet's range of ELITE (leased line) services and Giganet's broadband services. Our business-broadband SLAs and fix times are much superior than our competitors as we add on the maximum carrier service levels, so don't be surprised there - you can get business-grade broadband!
| Leased Line | Broadband | |
|
Uncontended/ Dedicated bandwidth |
Y | N |
| Symmetrical download/upload speeds | Y | N & Y |
| Unlimited data transfers | Y | Y |
| 24x7 support | Y | Y |
| 5-6hr clock hour fix | Y | Y |
| Managed Juniper router | Y | N |
| Wi-Fi Router/Firewall | N | Y |
| Can be used for MPLS PWAN circuits | Y | Y |
| Managed QoS2 | Y | Y1 |
| Fibre circuits available anywhere in the UK3 | Y | N |
| Static IP addresses2 |
5 as standard |
1 as standard Up to 8 |
| Static IPv6 addresses | /48 prefiex | /48 prefix |
1For Broadband circuits operating in MPLS PWANs.
2Subject to extra charges of £1.50/IP/month beyond included allowance.
3Subject to potential high excess construction charges.
Contract Length
- 12 months
- 36 months (typical)
- 60 months
36m contracts are typical, as the standard installation costs are free, and this includes the managed Juniper router.
12m contracts include a standard installation charge, typically ranging from £1500 to £7000 depending on the carrier and bearer size (100Mb or 10Gb).
Resilience Options
Giganet ELITE offers a variety of resiliency options, from the low-cost simply addition of a backup broadband connection, to the ultimate RO2 diverse Ethernet circuits that avoid any single point of failure.
Backup Broadband
In this resilience configuration, a backup broadband connection which could be an ADSL2+, FTTC, G.Fast or FTTP broadband connection is paired with the primary ELITE leased line connection. The broadband service will be routed over an alternate carrier network, delivered onto a different carrier interconnect, and terminate to a different Giganet data centre.
There is the potential for a single point of failure however with this option, and this includes the possibility that both the primary fibre ELITE leased line and backup broadband circuit route in the same ducts, follow the same routing to the exchange, and terminate into the same exchange.
- Failover duration: up to 180 seconds
- Fail-back: Automated within 30 seconds
- Target uptime SLA across both circuits: 99.99%
- Diversity: Different broadband carrier to ELITE leased line carrier, different termination Giganet data centre
- Single points of failure: Potential both circuits follow the same ductings, route back to the same exchange, and the backhaul for the different carriers from the exchange to Giganet's core are similar.
Backup ELITE leased line
In this resilience configuration, a secondary fibre ELITE leased line is paired with the primary ELITE leased line connection. The secondary fibre ELITE leased line would be using a different physical fibre carrier to the primary, and therefore likely to be terminating to a different local exchange. E.g. the primary fibre circuit is using an Openreach fibre, whereas the secondary is using a Virgin Media fibre. The Openreach circuit terminates into the local Openreach serving exchange, whereas the Virgin Media circuit terminates into the local Virgin Media POP. The backhaul for each circuit form their respective exchanges will usually be different, and at Giganet's core data end, they will terminate to a different Giganet data centre and router.
There is the slight potential for a single point of failure however with this option, and this includes the possibility that both the primary fibre ELITE leased line and backup fibre ELITE leased line route in the same ducts, follow the same routing to the exchange, and if there are different exchanges used, the same backhaul provider is used.
- Failover duration: up to 180 seconds
- Fail-back: Automated within 30 seconds
- Target uptime SLA across both circuits: 99.995%
- Diversity: Different underlying fibre secondary ELITE infrastructure to primary ELITE leased line carrier, different termination Giganet data centre
- Single points of failure: Slight potential both circuits follow the same ductings, route back to the same exchange, and the backhaul for the different carriers from the exchange to Giganet's core are similar.
RO2 ELITE leased line
This is the ultimate in resilient design, and the no-compromise option.
In this resilience configuration, both the primary and secondary fibre ELITE leased lines use the same underlying fibre infrastructure, and therefore the fibre carrier knows exactly where their fibre is to avoid any chance of overlap on either of the circuits. Each circuit is completely segregated, follows different routing into/out of your property and different ducts. Each circuit routes to a different exchange, and the backhaul from each circuit is following different routes. The carrier interconnects with the carrier are via diverse Giganet data centres. There aims to be no single point of failure.
The only potential single points of failure exist where the customer choses to accept any 'pinch-points', such as single entry points in to the premises and doesn't wish to spend the money to build around these.
- Failover duration: up to 180 seconds
- Fail-back: Automated within 30 seconds
- Target uptime SLA across both circuits: 100%
- Diversity: Same carrier, but different building entry points, different routing of fibres to separate exchanges, diverse fibre carriers, different carrier handoff in alternate Giganet data centres.
- Single points of failure: Target is zero. However in some cases, depending on the fibre availability
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