*** Response from WorldxChange ***

 

We have been following this thread silently for about a month now because I instructed our staff not to respond to any posts for two main reasons.

 

Firstly, we wanted to get a better feel of what the actual end-user issues being experienced are so that we can differentiate between genuine user/service concerns and the nebulous noisy comments that are completely irrelevant etc.

 

Secondly, we had anticipated completing a major network integration milestone relating to DSL services in the first week of October that unfortunately slipped its deadline by three weeks and has just now been completed.

 

This upgrade was delayed due to "coordination issues" between access provider, hardware vendor and egress provider (read into this what you will...) and came at a time when some of our key resources were deployed elsewhere (ie Maverick in the USA etc)

 

I have no intention of revealing our detailed network topology and modus operandi on this forum (as it is the best source of information for our competitors to find out what we are doing) but I will attempt to provide some answers to the genuine issues relating to DSL speeds and throughputs that have been raised here.

 

There are three main bottlenecks in providing the current UBS DSL-based bitstream services to the masses in New Zealand.

 

The LAP

- This is the link between the legacy TDM-based DSLAMS and the first ATM switch in Telecoms network

- This link is where the current internet-grade specification is enforced and depending on which DSLAM you are connected to determines the maximim throughput of your service.

- LAP-based issues are not as prevalent as they were 12 months ago because of the topology changes that Telecom have implemented over the past year but can still affect the end user experience in some cases.

- Telecom has also been converting the legacy ASAM DSLAMS to the newer DSL2+ IP-based ISAMS and by the end of this year they would have migrated 50% of the country's DSL users onto this new hardware.

- As each exchange/cabinet DSLAM is converted, users will experience at least one outage and will notice inconsistent speeds and throughputs (normally the sync speeds increase and slight improvements in throughput have been reported)

 

The Handover link

- This is the link between Telecom's data network and the service provider's BRAS (Broadband Remote Access Server)

- The traditional handover link is an ATM-based STM1 tail although some of the larger ISPs have had to install STM4 tails to aggregate 4 x STM1 links

- Each service provider uses different network dimensioning figures for these handover links depending on whether their respective customer bases are high or low bandwisth users.

- Changes in customer profiles and rapid increases in customer numbers can and do cause throughput bottlenecks at peak times that cannot be quickly resolved due to the 60+ day leadtimes for additional links.

 

Upstream International bandwidth

- Clearly the most commonly picked on topic when end-users compare the performance of individual ISPs and the most expensive to address.

- As a general comment it is fair to say that most broadband users have absolutely no idea what international bandwidth costs but some of you do know and therefore have an understanding of the challenges that face an ISP.

- We normally purchase international bandwidth from our different upstream providers in significant blocks and we time our incremental bandwidth expansion as best we can to provide our users with as consistant an experience as we can.

- This is not a perfect solution because our internet user and data usage growth is generally linear (god bless torrents.....) whilst the bandwidth growth is stepped and this results in varying throughputs - generally at peak times.

- A (good) side effect of being awarded the industry's Telecommunications Carrier of the Year award in October was that our average daily broadband signups has doubled over the past few weeks and this has caused extra contention for bandwidth as well.

 

So - what are we doing about these issues...?

 

The recent network upgrades/augmentations that we have completed (albeit three weeks later than we had planned) include solutions to address each of the bottlenecks that we have partial or complete control of.

 

LAP

- Unfortunately, we cannot do anything about the LAP bottlenecks until we are able to get our hands on the first variant of EUBA that allows for CoS and QoS parameters (Enhanced UBA is regulated ethernet-based end to end service not available until Q3 of 2008)

 

Handover

- We have commissioned GB Ethernet handoff links to replace the existing ATM links that carry DSL users traffic between Telecom and ourselves

- At the same time we have also commissioned a new BRAS that has been speced for the existing UBS as well as UBA, EUBA, HSNS and all other ethernet-based NGN variants.

- To give you some idea of our level of commitment here, we have migrated from hardware with 1GB backplanes to hardware with 320GB backplanes which is larger than anything even Telecom/Xtra have in their network.

- All of our users will be migrated to this platform during early November with the cutover being done in the middle of the night - more to follow on this.

 

International bandwidth

- We have recently installed Akamai caching servers to increase the response times and throughput of some of the most popular local and overseas content.

- We also host the Valve Steam servers for New Zealand and with the recent release of Half Life Episode 2 these servers have been happily caching the game to users all over the country for the past few weeks.

- We have another massive block of international bandwidth being added this week that will definately resolve offshore speed issues for a while.

 

I am sure that these changes will resolve most (if not all) of the issues raised in this thread and our staff are outstanding in their willingness and ability to support you all if there are any other concerns.

 

Our intention is to always try and offer a better service than our competitors so we are happy to hear about the good and bad that our users experience whilst using our products and services and we will always do our best to resolve/adapt accordingly.

 

This is why we opened ourselves up on GeekZone in the first place.

 

On a final note, just because we do not respond to some threads immediately does not mean that we are not reading them and continuing to work behind the scenes...

 

Regards,

 

Paul Clarkin

Director, Operations & Carrier

WorldxChange Communications Limited

 

2007 Telecommunications Carrier of the Year