Verizon Business Enables Ethernet Bandwidth on Demand

Verizon Business announced Wednesday it is the first Tier 1 operator to offer dynamic bandwidth for its Ethernet Virtual Private Line service, enabling businesses to adjust bandwidth on an as-needed basis via a customer portal. The service is available nationwide.

Verizon EVPL is a fiber-based network service that offers secure point-to-point connections between customers’ local area and wide area networks. With the new feature, customers can upgrade or downgrade service within 60 minutes of placing a request via the Verizon Enterprise Center customer portal. Requests for modification can be made in 24-hour increments. And, customers can schedule changes in advance. There is no limit to the number of EVCs that can be enabled with dynamic bandwidth.

Verizon introduced similar capabilities for its Private IP customers in spring 2006.

Mike Volgende, director of Ethernet Services for Verizon Business, said dynamic bandwidth gives customers the flexibility to manage their networks by allocating bandwidth based on application requirements rather than on peak or “worst-case” scenarios.

By temporarily upgrading bandwidth, customers are able to manage their network costs without overbuilding them to satisfy peak demands. In addition, they can achieve better QoS by aligning the network design with applications requirements.

To set up the network, Volgende said that the access must be preprovisioned, but the EVCs can be ordered at a range of speeds from 1mbps to 1gbps. As an example, the access link may be provisioned at 70mbps, but the EVC ordered at 10mbps. In that case, the customer can increase bandwidth up to 70mbps. It cannot downgrade below the contracted EVC of 10mbps, however.

Of course, the upshot of the offer is to drive home cost savings, Volgende noted. He offered a pricing example: A company that needed 200mbps service only on the weekends for large file transfers would have to provision its network for 200mbps under a traditional EVPL service plan. The cost would be $5,584 per month, not including the access charge. With the dynamic bandwidth option, they could go with a smaller amount – 100mbps – for weekdays and schedule 200mbps on the weekends. The cost would be $3,728.50, not including the access charge. The differential is $1855.50 per month. (Customers are billed for the higher increment in 24-hour periods.)

And, Volgende said, if the customer finds that traffic needs increase over time, they can increase the weekday speeds on the fly.

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