LightEdge Solutions Delivers Cost-Effective High-Speed Internet to Small and Medium-Sized Businesses

PRLog (Press Release) – Aug 13, 2007 – FREMONT, CA, August 13, 2007—Actelis Networks®, the leading global supplier of Carrier Ethernet over Copper™ solutions, today announced that LightEdge Solutions®, Inc., a leading provider of fully-managed voice, data and network services in the Midwest and Southwest, has deployed Ethernet Access Devices (EADs) from Actelis’ ML 600 product line, as well as ML 100 and ML 1300 transport and aggregation switches, to better serve the growing bandwidth needs of its small and medium-sized business (SMB) customers. By utilizing these products as a cost-effective alternative to slower T1 lines, business subscribers can connect quickly to the LightEdge IP network via symmetrical Ethernet access connections for high-speed Internet access, VoIP, remote managed backup and security services, as well as retrieve applications and data on servers within LightEdge’s data center.
LightEdge Solutions targets SMBs ranging from 25-250 employees. For this market, cost-effectively delivering emerging broadband services over the access network is key to their success, according to Kris Harris, vice president of operations at LightEdge Solutions.
“With T1 lines delivering only 1.5 Mbps, we would have to either add line cards to the router or change routers completely to upgrade the bandwidth service of a customer,” commented Harris. “The Actelis solution is efficient because we can leverage the same equipment for all service levels. This provides our customers the ability to quickly upgrade their bandwidth as much as tenfold without the need for additional equipment or the time necessary to process changes. When customers need more than a bonded 2xT1 line or have foreseeable scalability needs, the Actelis option makes a lot of sense.”
LightEdge Solutions leverages the economies of scale from their enterprise-grade network investments to carve out pieces (scale-on-demand services) for other businesses. Rather than building their own data center, buying and managing a premises-based IP PBX or investing in an IBM Blade Center and SAN (Storage Area Network), business customers can use LightEdge’s network and facilities for a predictable monthly fee.
“Small and medium-sized businesses win with this model because technology obsolescence is not a factor, upfront costs are minimal and, ultimately, the network platform is managed by a professional engineering staff,” said Wade Brower, director of sales at LightEdge. “Suddenly, small businesses are running on the same high reliability equipment as a Fortune 100 company, but they just aren’t paying the same upfront price tag.”
LightEdge currently has 28 customer installations based on Actelis’ award-winning carrier Ethernet solutions. For the past year, Community Health Care (CHC), located in Davenport, Iowa, has been using the Actelis carrier Ethernet solution to connect its three locations in Davenport with facilities in Rock Island and Moline, Ill.
In April CHC deployed LightEdge’s Hosted PBX VoIP service, delivered over their Actelis connection. The new telephony system connects all five CHC locations, with data traffic aggregated back to the main data center in Davenport. Ron Gillis, network administrator for CHC, says the determining factor to deploying this new telephony system was threefold: no upfront costs, no new hardware to purchase and the hardware was future-proof.
“Our phone system was outdated and in need of replacement,” explained Gillis, “so we were looking for a new cost-effective system that would leverage our existing network and assets. LightEdge, along with the combined Actelis Ethernet over copper solution, provided us with a hosted PBX VoIP system that is flexible, allowing me to quickly add more locations in the future while providing the necessary bandwidth needed to deliver high-speed Internet services and other hosted applications.”
“LightEdge’s ongoing commitment is to provide scalable, cost-effective network and IT solutions to businesses like Community Health Care,” added Brower. “We see a bright future enabling SMB customers to cost-effectively out-task their voice, data and network needs to a highly managed environment. We believe this provides our valued customers with a competitive advantage in their respective markets and, most importantly, the ability to quickly scale systems as their business grows.”