OC3 Bids Services Overview
OC-3 translates into three DS3's or 84 T1's, at 155 Megabits per second.
An OC3 is approximately equal to three DS3s, and it operates at 155 Megabits per second. Therefore, an OC3 can be delivered as three DS3s or as one 155M pipe. The benefit in using DS3s is that each can be separated back out as individual T1s (each with 24 channels). An OC3 is the equivalent of 100 T1 lines.
Because of the speed OC3 provides, it is typically found in large business environments and NEVER in residences. The primary reason that OC3 is geared towards businesses, outside of its capacity, is cost. For example, an OC3 can cost anywhere from $20,000-$45,000 to maintain each month.
And not all businesses can afford such rates; therefore, the target businesses for OC3 are members of an even narrower pool. OC3 is necessary for businesses where Internet access is critical; this means that a business cannot be without Internet if operations are to continue.
OC3 is in the same family with other technologies that are big money makers for installers. As a result, hundreds of OC3 installers have advertisements on the Web. Low price and reliability guarantees are the main bargaining tools of the companies who install OC3. Many OC3 installation companies will not even speak with residential users, so unless you head up an IT division at a large company, you will most likely never deal with OC3.
OC-3 Business Internet Access is for:
- medium- and large- businesses connecting to the Internet
- web hosting companies
- Small- and medium-sized ISPs or ASPs that are expanding their network
Note that OC3 Business Internet Access lines start at around $6,000 per month; prices increase based on the distance to your business and other factors. The local loop will play an important part in determining the total cost.
OC3 Network and Technical Specifications
Verizon Business owns and operates the farthest reaching global IP network based on number of company owned Points of Presence (PoPs). Our network facilities are located throughout North America, Latin America, Europe, Africa, and the Asia-Pacific region, in more than 130 countries, spanning six continents (all except Antarctica) — with over 22Gbps of transatlantic capacity, an MPLS enabled STM16 network in Europe, and STM1’s across the Pacific and West Coast. Verizon Business was the first to route and switch IP traffic commercially over an MPLS core network at 10 Gbps utilizing OC-192 links.
OC3 Network Management
For customers who want a better way of monitoring and analyzing their telecommunications resources, we offer government organizations FTSNet. The FTSNet platform offers access to the Verizon Business Customer Center, which is a comprehensive suite of Web-based network management and customer care tools. Verizon Business Customer Center gives your organization an innovative, flexible, and robust management platform that allows you to better monitor and analyze your telecommunications resources. Verizon Business Customer Center can also help your organization attain proficiency goals, improve productivity, and achieve greater cost control - all of which impacts your bottom line.
OC3 Customer Support
All government organizations can be assured of around-the-clock service from Verizon Business’ dedicated customer service team. Our technical support teams are available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year to answer your questions and do whatever we can to make your government organization run smoothly.
OC3 Implementation Plan
Upon placement of an order for dedicated connectivity, each US customer is assigned an installation engineer who serves as the single point of technical contact between the customer and Verizon Business prior to installation of service, and for thirty days after the successful establishment of connectivity. As part of establishing new dedicated connectivity to a site, the Verizon Business installation engineers help customers with many of the issues that would otherwise make connecting to the Internet difficult. Verizon Business allocates IP address space to and establishes DNS service for each customer as appropriate. Verizon Business can provide primary and secondary DNS for customers, or customers can provide primary DNS with Verizon Business providing secondary DNS support: Verizon Business generally recommends that customers who list many systems in their DNS supply their own DNS.
Throughout the entire installation process, Verizon Business installation engineers provide input to customers to help them plan for their connectivity, and to help them create effective solutions that will be as simple as possible to implement. Verizon Business’ installation engineers are highly skilled in helping customers with any technical background needed to establish their Internet connectivity.
As part of the installation process for dedicated connections, Verizon Business orders the leased-line circuit from the appropriate phone company and tracks the order to ensure that the circuit is installed on time wherever possible. Verizon Business also works with the appropriate phone company to debug any problems that may arise during circuit installation. Verizon Business provides customers assistance with electronic mail (SMTP and POP), USENET news, IP routing, and other critical Internet services.
With our standard OC3 services, no remote router management is provided. However, in almost all cases, once a customer’s link is up and their initial router configuration is stable, no changes are required to that configuration. We maintain copies of each customer’s router configuration, and can send pre-configured replacement equipment if a customer accidentally changes something on-site or if a failed piece of equipment must be replaced.
Installation may be scheduled between the hours of 8 AM and 7 PM ET, Monday through Friday (excluding holidays). Customers requiring installation outside of these hours will need to be scheduled through the assigned Install Engineer and are subject to availability.
Once a customer’s connection has been operational for 30 days, all customer issues are addressed by our Technical Support organization. Technical support is available 24 hours per day, seven days per week.
OC3 Access
Internet Dedicated supports clear-channel OC-3 SONET circuits.
OC3 Hardware
Our provider have certified the following customer premises equipment (CPE) to use with the Internet Dedicated OC-3 Price Protected product:
Cisco 7206 VXR*
- Cisco 7513*
- Juniper M5
*Packet over SONET Interface Processor (POSIP) cards are needed for OC-3 services.
Note: There are a lot of different types of connectors, but the most common ones:
- SC – A push-pull connector. The international standard and most common with customer circuits. The SC connector has the advantage (over ST) of being duplexed into a single connector clip with both transmit/receive fibers.
- ST – Keyed, bayonet-style connector is very commonly used.
With the Performance IP service, you can take advantage of the convenience, flexibility and reach of the unique Internet network backbone, seamlessly connecting to customers, suppliers, employees and business partners. By routing over redundant, high-speed connections to all major Internet backbones, this service provides highly reliable robust delivery of your content, applications and communications throughout the Internet.
Internet Network Backbone - Detail
Using its patented technology and the existing Internet network infrastructure, we created an innovative way to route data and avoid the Internet's points of congestion. Rather than provisioning traditional single ISP network access, Performance IP service intelligently routes across up to 8 integrated NSP networks in the Private Network Access Points (P-NAPs). This insulates your traffic from the risk of network outages, providing reliable, stable and predictable connectivity.
Intelligent Technology
We have developed proprietary route control technology, which overcomes the limitations of traditional routing policies. This technology monitors the performance of each Internet backbone, routing your traffic across the best path, providing fast and more reliable data delivery than traditional routing methods. The route control technology considers path characteristics like latency, packet loss, route stability and congestion when making routing decisions. Decisions are made dynamically and automatically to account for network performance changes, without the need for manual intervention.
OC3 Service Level Guarantee (SLA)
Unlike our competition, we approach customer service and support proactively. Through constant network monitoring and management, we are able to alert our customers to network issues and correct them efficiently. We have purposefully defined our Service Level Agreements (SLAs) to lead the industry, so customers get reliable performance supported with proactive service and crediting - that's why our agreement is a guarantee.
Guaranteed North American performance metrics include:
- 100% network availability
- Less than 45 milliseconds latency
- Less than 0.3% packet loss
- Less than 0.5 millisecond jitter
In case there is ever a problem with the service, we provide 24x7x365 direct access to certified networking engineers in our Network Operations Centers (NOCs), not ticket takers. Our network engineers have the expertise and visibility into all major Internet backbones to see and resolve issues quickly and effectively.
Burstable and Full Rate Plans
DESCRIPTION:
Burstable OC3: OC3 Internet service providing flexible, high-bandwidth solution designed for large enterprises, ISPs and other businesses that have fairly regular traffic patterns with periodic requirements for higher bandwidth.
Full Rate OCS: OC3 Internet service providing a full 155 Mbps high-bandwidth solution.
LOCAL LOOP:
Burstable OC3: OC3 access provided via non-shared, non-fractional XO owned or leased facility.
Full Rate OC3: OC3 access provided via non-shared, non-fractional XO owned or leased facility.
BANDWIDTH:
Burstable OC3: OC3 connection delivering bandwidth commits in 10 Mbps increments, all burstable to the full 155 Mbps port.
Full Rate OC3: OC3 connection delivering full 155 Mbps port speed.
BILLING:
Burstable OC3: OC3 pricing based on payment for committed bandwidth on a monthly recurring basis with usage above the bandwidth commit charged on a per Mbps basis measured via the industry-standard 95th percentile calculation.
Full Rate OC3: Price protected flat OC3 pricing for the entire 155 Mbps bandwidth.
Key Benefits
Burstable OC3: OC3 Internet service delivering a flexible, very high bandwidth solution designed for ISPs and large corporations. XO offers OC3 pricing that allows customers to pay for a lower, more predictable level of bandwidth, without removing the capability to burst above the committed bandwidth level.
Full Rate OC3: OC3 Internet service delivering a very high bandwidth solution designed for businesses that require constant, high bandwidth Internet access.