Remote And Small Site Access In The US: A Look At Six Alternative Service Providers

Forrester clients whose network operations span a large number of small or remote locations often express interest in using providers other than AT&T, Qwest Communications, Sprint, or Verizon Business. They want to evaluate the capabilities of alternative providers who provide broad geographic coverage and specialize in small site or remote access services. A wide variety of these providers exists; here, we examine a broad swath — AuBeta, MegaPath, and New Edge Networks, whose offerings focus on landline managed services; PAETEC, whose network supports both transport-centric and managed services for sites that use T1 access; Hughes, whose managed service features its satellite capabilities but also extends to include landline and traditional wireless services; and IVANS, a value-added reseller (VAR) that has focused on serving the medical and insurance communities. Clients that are considering using these types of providers must clearly identify their connectivity requirements — because each of these providers, and their services, offer some degree of overlap with each other in addition to providing unique strengths and weaknesses.