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Fibre: It’s not just about the internet

Although internet connectivity is usually the first fibre application businesses think of, there are others to consider that can be highly advantageous.

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When businesses think fibre connectivity, they think internet. And make no mistake, fibre internet is crucial to businesses with continuously high data demands, meaning their day-to-day operations—and success—depend on tasks such as seamless HD video conferencing, sharing very large files and entire databases, as well as having consistent, real-time access to cloud-hosted applications.

But fibre is about much more than the internet; fibre is about data transmission, and that means it’s the basis for other applications and solutions that even businesses that have fibre internet may not be leveraging. Here are a couple of examples:

SIP trunking

SIP trunking is a way of providing VoIP (essentially, voice communications over the internet) connectivity between a business’s phone system and the public switched telephone network (PSTN), and it offers certain advantages over the traditional digital primary rate interface (PRI) method of connecting to the PSTN, especially when its put over a fibre circuit and not over the internet. These are:

Greater call clarity and assured privacy – depending on your provider: Some SIP trunking providers can backhaul (move to their network backbone) voice traffic using a dedicated ethernet virtual connection (EVC) instead of using the public internet, resulting in much greater call clarity and assured privacy. It’s important to note, however, that providers who can do this often charge a premium for it. Determining how your SIP provider is routing and managing the traffic is important to learn early on. And this brings us to the next advantage SIP trunking has over PRI.

Cost-effectiveness: PRI voice connections are physical, meaning they must be physically constructed, and they’re only available in increments of 23, which can easily lead to paying for more connections than required. This can really add up if your business has many locations throughout your province or throughout the country, especially when you add in long-distance costs. With SIP trunking, voice connections are virtual, which means they can be scaled up and down on demand—and without the assistance of a technician. Never again would a business have—and have to pay for—superfluous connections. And businesses with highly distributed locations only need to install their phone system—or even multiple phone systems—in one select location, centralizing management and allowing for better long-distance cost control. In fact, although the system is centralized in one location, SIP trunking allows businesses to acquire local phone numbers, even for regions they’re not physically in; so if your business offers a service that’s applicable to anyone in Canada, but you’re concerned customers may be put off by a nonnative number, SIP trunking is the answer.

Private networking

If your business has more than one location, you need to connect those locations so your employees can collaborate with each other seamlessly, reliably and securely. A private network does just that, especially when fibre is the core of its connectivity.

Private networks come in a variety of options, including:

Ethernet: Whether you need to connect two sites or twenty, or you need to bridge your entire wide area network (WAN), Ethernet offers a range of possibilities, offering more flexibility and scalability than the still widely used legacy time-division multiplexing (TDM) technology. Able to combine cable and fibre connectivity and scale from 2 Mbps to 10 Gbps, Ethernet is the simplest way to build a WAN.

MPLS IP VPN: Multi-protocol label switching internet protocol virtual private network—take a breath—is a private networking solution that allows you to prioritize certain types of data, such as voice or video, over other types to ensure predictable performance of the applications your business relies on the most. What’s even better is when your provider manages the routing, freeing up your own IT resources for other, more innovative tasks and reducing your overall operating costs.

Optical wavelength: This option is perfect for point-to-point connections. Data is transferred via various wavelengths of light through fibre, dramatically improving overall bandwidth and performance for reliable voice, video, real-time transactions, disaster recovery, data centre connectivity and more at speeds of up to 100 Gbps. It’s also more convenient and cost-effective than activating dark (unused) fibre. That’s because, with optical wavelength, you’re using the full potential of already-active fibre rather than leasing all new fibre, the capacity of which you may not even need.

From improved voice connections to better private networking and more, learn what else fibre can do for your business. Connect with a Rogers business specialist.