Unrivalled Seven Classes of Service from ntl:Telewest Business Strengthens UK Wide Ethernet

Published 5th December 2008

Only UK network provider to offer seven Classes of Service for Ethernet

Initiative demonstrates industry leadership in Ethernet capabilities and a collaborative approach to customer service

New features offer network performance insight in near real time and traffic prioritisation for efficient management of services

ntl:Telewest Business, part of the Virgin Media Group, today strengthened its National Ethernet capabilities by adding seven Classes of Service (CoS) and Performance Reporting, offering organisations complete control over their communications usage. ntl:Telewest Business is the only UK network provider to offer seven Classes of Service to its nation-wide Ethernet customers, furthering its commitment to providing next generation communications on customers’ terms.

The new CoS levels have been designed to give organisations the resources to align their communications service usage directly with their corporate and business needs. This sets a new standard in the telecommunications industry for customer visibility and control of services.

National Ethernet customers are also able to monitor the performance of the customers Class of Service polices and the performance of the underlying network via an easy to use online portal. These types of tools are already in place for customers of ntl:Telewest Business’s Internet Protocol Virtual Private Network (IPVPN) services.

National Ethernet is an ideal service for organisations that have sites across the country and require a robust high-bandwidth next generation network to connect these locations. To ensure optimum network performance to their sites, customers can now monitor the network, from point to point in near real time over the online portal. The downloadable data can be customised and filtered for detailed analysis, for example organisations can study network performance across different regions and identify any peaks or troughs in traffic over periods of time.

Labelling and prioritising traffic types can be done by the customer or by the ntl:Telewest Business network. This lets organisations prioritise bandwidth for different types of traffic so that less critical traffic does not delay vital information. The ability to prioritise traffic in this way is now a key consideration for organisations wanting to align communications investment with their organisational goals.

“In today’s highly competitive and pressured market, customers need to be in control of every facet of their operations and communications are typically at the heart of that” said Stephen Beynon MD of ntl:Telewest Business. “By being the first to bring CoS to National Ethernet services, we are revolutionising the market. Our next generation network across the UK enables us to offer levels of flexibility and control that conventional legacy network providers can only aspire to.”