New Edge Networks' AggVantage Bundle

New Edge is pricing DSL backhaul plus general IP transport in a bundle priced to replace dedicated T-1 lines at ISPs of all sizes in New Edge's tier 2, 3, and 4 cities.

by ISP-Planet Staff [December 4, 2002]

Yesterday New Edge Networks of Vancouver, Wash. announced a new AggVantage service for ISPs. Starting at $1,480 per month (with no installation fee on a three year commitment), ISPs can purchase connectivity ranging from 3 Mbps (with 1 Mbps dedicated to DSL aggregation and 2 Mbps for IP transit) up to a partial DS-3 (8 Mbps, 3 Mbps of IP transit and 5 Mbps DSL) which is $2,699 per month (with no installation fee on a three year commitment).

New Edge will add a class C (256 IP addresses) for ISPs that sign up for a three year commitment.

"We rely on ISPs as our wholesale partners," says Mark Day, New Edge vice president of wholesale sales. "We know that in a market like Fayetteville, Ark., an ISP can pay $1,200 per month for a single T-1 dedicated to IP transit. If they want to add to that they double their recurring costs and they pay an additional install fee. We can ramp up bandwidth without charging an install fee. We built structured packages to offer minimum entry points for small ISPs, but we also offer full DS-3s and even dedicated lines."

New Edge's network consists of 600 central offices (COs) connected over an ATM backbone with 18 regional aggregation points. The company acquired a metro area infrastructure when it acquired the @Work assets of the now defunct @Home network. It has dedicated access capabilities in almost 30 metro areas. Furthermore, Day notes, the company can provide ATM access in almost every LATA in the continental U.S. Several network maps are available here.

If, for example, an ISP has a customer in Tyler, Tex. who moves to Fayetteville, Ark. but does not want to change their ISP, New Edge can help. Once an ISP has a DSL connection to the New Edge network, New Edge can provision customers in its other COs. If a customer moves to a location served by a CO that is part of New Edge's network, then the ISP simply pays an additional transit fee so that New Edge can connect the customer through the ISP's base NOC (which, in this example, is in Tyler, Tex.).

Day also says that New Edges provides a secure extranet so that an ISP's field officers can log in securely for pre-qualification, order entry, and order tracking.

AggVantage customers with growing bandwidth needs only deal with New Edge to grow the rented pipe (up to a full DS-3). Of course, monthly fees will rise, but ISPs avoid provisioning delays associated with telco networks.

Day sees the DSL market growing. "We're focused on SDSL business class services. Frankly, the killer apps of the future are still unclear. We find that e-mail is enough to drive demand. Businesses and independent contractors are exchanging large files as attachments and that's enough to sell the service. Collaborators need symmetric service because they want to upload quickly and download quickly."

He is already seeing interest in the AggVantage program. "We've got hundreds of existing ISP partners who resell DSL for us. The launch of the AggVantage product reached many of them. We also have a large number of prospects, many of them in small cities. Our DSL network mostly serves cities of between 5,000 and 300,000 population. I'm glad to say that we have a large number of existing customers and our customer base is growing."

— End