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Request announces virtual fibre service with availability of DSL load sharing

Announcement posted by Request Broadband 18 Jun 2003

IP traffic uniquely presented across multiple DSL services into the office
Request Broadband Pty Ltd (Request), a leading Australian broadband services provider, has announced the release of DSL load sharing on the Request network. Load sharing enables businesses to utilise multiple broadband connections to combine the bandwidth and provide higher capacity connectivity solutions for Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) and broadband internet access.
Simply put, DSL load sharing allows IP traffic to be presented across multiple DSL links into the office, said Chris Roberts, Request Senior Product Manager. Up to eight DSL links can be combined together to deliver symmetric connections with capacity as high as16Mbps and asymmetric capacity as high as 48Mbps.
Roberts maintains that the offering is unique in the market because of its widespread availability. Requests competitors only offer higher speed symmetric DSL services in very limited geographic areas.
Requests load sharing service meets the need for businesses requiring greater than 2Mbps for their VPN head office connections and internet business applications. With the vast growth of broadband internet services over the past three years, organisations have enjoyed low cost internet connections but, often, they reach a point where greater bandwidth is required.
The establishment cost and monthly running costs of higher bandwidth fibre-based connections are prohibitive for most medium and small businesses. With the load sharing DSL broadband solution, Request has created another major price-performance breakthrough for Australian business.
In addition, as enterprises increase their use of the internet to deliver their mission-critical applications, maintaining only one link to the internet represents a single point of failure and serious network vulnerability. Load sharing delivers resilience, ensuring maximum up time by rerouting traffic through other links should one of the physical links degrade or suffer a line fault.
Requests DSL load sharing works on all Request supplied services, regardless of location. It is ideally suited for head office sites of our RequestVPN offering [IP Private Network solution], where a low cost alternative to fibre can be used as a feeder to a large number of remote or satellite offices, said Roberts.
Load sharing also expands the symmetric traffic capabilities at remote sites. Many remote sites have been limited to 512K symmetric until now, added Roberts. Now, 1Mbps or more symmetric traffic can be delivered to these businesses. [In contrast to residential internet browsing, business data traffic is inherently symmetric the quantity of information flowing into the business is usually the same as that being sent from the business.]
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About Request
Request is an infrastructure-based broadband applications and services company delivering flexible and innovative broadband solutions to small and medium enterprises (SMEs) throughout Australia. Requests broadband services are sold in all capital cities and major regional centres through over 160 Request Service Providers.
Delivering on the need for multi-site customer networking Request's Next Generation broadband IP Network architecture specifically supports business evolution to high performance IP-centric internet and e-business applications. Core products include RequestVPN, RequestXpress and RequestSoHo.
In choosing Request, companies are able to quickly and cost effectively establish high-speed internet access, private networks between multiple office locations, voice over IP, video over IP, remote access to corporate networks over the same broadband link without the need for additional infrastructure.
In March 2003, Request was awarded the 2003 ATUG Industry award for Best Communications Solution - SME for its RequestVPN solution. March 2002 saw Request awarded Carrier of the Year at the annual ATUG industry awards for offering a reliable business-grade broadband network with a 99.9% SLA. October 2001 saw Request being awarded the PC Authority Labs Award for Top Business Broadband for its DSL business offerings.
For more information on Request, visit www.request.com.au.