Surf Telecoms chooses Cisco Metro Ethernet Switching for next-gen broadband Ethernet access in south-west England
1 November 2002 -- Surf Telecoms, the telecoms infrastructure division of Western Power Distribution, has selected Cisco Metro Ethernet Switching to help provide next-generation broadband Ethernet access to businesses, academic institutions, carriers and service providers in south-west England through its fibre network.
Surf Telecoms already has an extensive network of fibre-optic cable and local points of presence (POPs) across Wales and south-west England. Combining this with Cisco's Metro Ethernet Switching portfolio helps it to provide flexible, scalable bandwidth, from 10Mbit/s to Gigabit Ethernet.
"Ethernet provides our customers with the high bandwidth they need with a new baseline of 10Mbit/s, yet gives them more flexibility than traditional leased-lined connections," says Steve Blew, sales and marketing director. "Cisco's Metro Ethernet Switching portfolio gives us the performance and resilience expected by our customers, who are used to carrier-class levels of reliability."
Blew continues, "By providing Ethernet capabilities alongside our existing SDH fibre-optic services, we're giving our customers maximum choice. The Ethernet service lets them pay only for the bandwidth they use, yet increase their available capacity quickly to cope with unexpected demand."
Surf Telecoms runs most of its fibre-optic cable along its existing power cables, either as a separate cable or wrapped around the earth wire. This is just a quarter the cost of running underground cables, meaning it can pass the savings on to its customers and offer cost-effective broadband connections.
The company also locates its more than 20 points of presence (POPs) within existing electricity substations, taking advantage of the existing infrastructure of parent company Western Power Distribution.
Surf Telecoms is using Cisco 7600 Series Routers in its Ethernet backbone, and is deploying Catalyst 3550 Series switches in smaller POPs and at customer premises. This architecture gives the flexibility to add more local POPs according to customer demand.
"Surf Telecoms is providing the high-speed broadband access that business need, with the flexibility of Ethernet," says Michael Bayer, director Service Provider Marketing, EMEA for Cisco.
Surf Telecoms was established in 1994 to provide managed bandwidth, dark fibre and site location facilities to communications-intensive businesses, utilities, government agencies and educational establishments throughout south-west England and South Wales. Its £30m fibre network infrastructure, which has been developed through its relationship with Western Power Distribution, extends 1400km, linking cable landing stations and major towns and cities to the rest of the UK via interconnections with carrier networks in Bristol.