News Releases

New‘Ultra’ DSL Technologies Enhance Small/Medium Size Business Productivity

Toronto, ON, February 1, 2005—The new UltraDSL technology, as introduced by Interlink Connectivity Inc., has made major inroads into small and mediumsized businesses seeking to substantially increase their bandwidth at a much lower cost than competing technologies. These businesses also cite the service aspect of dealing with a service-focused supplier as opposed to giant faceless corporations offering utilitytype services.

“UltraDSL is a very reliable solution for lowcost high bandwidth requirements,” said Dennis Mansillo, Interlink Director of Sales and Marketing. “It allows us to place the right connectivity solution for a particular size company at a meaningful and affordable price. Some entrepreneurs are also extending the technology to their small business clients and providing them with the same benefits of security and control. Why they need the technology is as important as what they need.” Although Interlink offers most highbandwidth connectivity solution—xDSL, T1, E10 or Fibre— it states that “nothing comes close to the price/performance of UltraDSL.”

Asigra Inc., a supplier of online backup and restore solutions for network computing, is an example of a how effective UltraDSL can be for technology firms. This company sought a lowcost
reliable service as an augmentation to their existing bandwidth. Arun Farajun, Asigra Vice President, said he was skeptical at the outset. “You cannot get bonded DSL service from Bell or ATT,” he explains. “My understanding of Interlink’s value proposition is that they put multiple DSL lines together and they behave as if they are one big DSL Line. To get more throughput they take two DSL connections and put a box on your site. It behaves like one big DSL. Then they have another line and another line and so on.”

Farajun points out that it’s not just about the technology but also about the provider. At the beginning, there was a problem with a firewall. “It had something to do with their provider and they insulated us from that,” Farajun says. “We then had an internal problem and they were very responsive.” “Its much better than working with a large telco. This company is much more responsive and they want to keep us happy.” Although Farajun is in a technology company and understands how this new product works, in the end it doesn’t really matter to him. “For us, how they put the bandwidth together is irrelevant,” he comments. “We just want it to work—and it does.” “The differentiator is cost and customer service.” He recommends that companies in the 100500 employee range considering such technology first test the provider “in terms of
customer response.” Then, he says, “consider the upload and download traffic. If it works, then it comes down to price…how it compares to other providers.” In this case, the new technology did compare well and it is still installed at Asigra.

It’s not just technology companies that are benefiting from their consideration of a breakthrough technology. Toronto’s West Park Hospital was seeking not only faster Internet access for their 800 users but also reduced costs. A scalable version of the technology called Ultra 12 was installed to meet the health facility’s needs. Interlink’s technical staff completed the installation and also assisted with some complex requirements unavailable in 'offtheshelf' solutions.

“This company said they would ‘break the DSL barrier’,” explains Errol Arthur, IT Manager at West Park. “Their presentation was very authentic and they seemed to meet our needs. They came in and did their installation. It took about a day. They provided the hardware and we just provided four lines. UltraDSL is now used for the entire facility. The speed is much faster than we had before. That’s one of the reasons we wanted to change. Our download is now 15Mbps and an upload is 3.2 Mbps. Our primary used to be 1.5Mb.”

Given the relative complexity of the hospital’s requirements, Arthur cites the need for offsite
attention to the system as a necessity. “They monitor the system remotely,” he says. “If something goes wrong, they can tell you and they also can provide preventative maintenance. On one occasion, the hospital was engaging in some system modifications and to Arthur’s surprise, “They called us to ask if we were aware because they could see it.”

Businesses with video and voice over I/P needs now can also take advantage of this technology solution, with its low entry price and good fit with these types of applications, according to Mansillo. “We were asked by Introtel, one of our convergence partners, to look at COTA Health, a leading provider of comprehensive rehabilitation, mental health and support services in Ontario.”

For four of COTA Health’s locations (Ottawa, London and two in Toronto), Interlink provided bandwidth to meet the requirements specific to each location. Ottawa and London needed only smaller connections (up to 8Mbps) while head office in Toronto needed a larger pipe (20mbps). All locations can be easily scaledup if required. The COTA Health sites are connected through Interlink’s data centre and can communicate with each other without having to go out to the Internet at large, giving them improved performance and security.

Bernadette Byrne, the organization’s Vice President, Corporate Services, picks up the story. “Introtel, our phone system supplier, checked out what options were available. We needed a new phone system and they were looking at them. They knew we needed a service of this type. It allows us to have fourdigit dialing between four of our sites. So if I want to talk to someone in Ottawa, I just dial 3000 and I get them right away via VoIP.”

For Byrne, the technology provides both enhancements to VoIP as well as increases in Internet throughput. “All of our Internet is much faster,” she says. “Referrals come via fax and some are eighty pages long—eight Megs each. We send information now in a way that minimizes the way information goes between our servers at any one time,” she adds. “We are going to structure it so that we have one server in each of the local sites and the staff here in Toronto can go across the entire WAN to get the information if it is needed.”

Another need of the Rehab organization was to be able to answer calls 24x7 “Part of our CCAC contracts is that we have to respond to any request for service coming in,” Byrne explains. “We have to be able to answer the faxes and the phones at all times while providing full backup. Our regional offices are small and so we have to make sure everything works. I need Ottawa and Toronto to fill the gap in London and vice versa. So putting this LAN in allowed us to do that. Before this, all we had was a regular Bell High speed Internet connection. The new speed is great! The Interlink service was the most cost effective. What this allows me to do is stagger our lines—I can add an extra one or two at a time. It’s easy and a costeffective. We don’t have to take a huge leap at any one time and that’s important.”

Todd Yates, Executive VP of sales, Introtel e.Networks sites low cost, and reliability as winning factors in choosing this technology. “We did our first pilot where we put in four UltraDSL links running voice data and Internet access. It turned out to be the only solution that would meet our client's financial considerations while providing them with the bandwidth and speed that they needed. Comparing it to other options, it would have cost two or three times the monthly access fee,” he says.

Performance and reliability were equally important to Yates. ”You need networks that are operating properly for the voice over. If they weren't operating that way, we'd hear about it instantly. Interlink's service works well for that. The reliability factor has been good. Its been up and running for seven months at the first site and about five months across all four sites.” Flexibility and responsiveness are also key factors for Yates: “We try to stay away from the big guys (large telcos) because we don't find them flexible or accommodating. Our clients require more flexibility than the big suppliers have.”

“We are looking for leading IT and convergence companies like Introtel that want to deliver high quality costeffective solutions to their clients,” Mansillo concludes. “Partnering with these companies will help us get this technology to the market a lot sooner. It provides these companies with the ability to offer complete services for their clients including Internet connectivity—giving them a distinct advantage in the market.”