Date: Mon Jul 30 15:57:15 2001
From: Root Administrator <homer@Lightlink.com>
To: System Notices <sn-l@Lightlink.com>
Subject: DSL.net pulling out of Ithaca
! PLEASE !
DO NOT DEPEND ON OUR EQUIPMENT OR BACKUPS TO PROTECT YOUR DATA
DO NOT USE THE PHONE FOR TECHNICAL SUPPORT IF YOU CAN USE E-MAIL
THANK YOU
------------------------------------------------------------------------
07/30/01 Monday 1:30pm EST
There are rumors going around that DSL.net is pulling out of
Ithaca as of August 31st. A number of our customers have gotten their
disconnect letter saying that service will end on Aug 31st, 2001.
I called DSL.net directly and got a tentative 'Yes Ithaca is
being pulled due to non profitability'.
If you are a DSL.net customer or know of any, you might want to
check this out with DSL.net directly if you haven't yet received the
disconnect letter, some of their customers have NOT received their
disconnect letter yet but perhaps should have.
Lightlink would love to bid for your service needs, either
through 2 meg business radio links or ADSL/SDSL links. If you are
interested please contact us ASAP at (607) 277-0959. Ma Bell takes
upwards of 2 to 4 weeks to install a new DSL line or even move one,
and with the students coming back its going to be very tight to meet
an August 31st deadline to get a DSL line replaced.
Historically Lightlink DSL services are more expensive than
DSL.net's. However we are solvent and going to stay that way!
Below are our commercial rates.
Homer and Jane
ART MATRIX - LIGHTLINK
PO 880 Ithaca, NY 14851-0880
(607) 277-0959 Voice
(607) 277-8913 Fax
(607) 277-5026 Modems
homer@lightlink.com E-mail
jes@lightlink.com E-mail
07/30/01 Monday 3:43pm EST
QUICK SUMMARY
Lightlink internet charges are
$250/month or $2500/year, no contract.
$10/gig/month after 1 free gig/month.
Connection charges are as follows:
Customer Lightlink Bell Bell Lightlink Bandwidth
Hardware Hardware Setup Monthly Monthly per Gig
Radio $1500 $0 $0 $0 $250 $10
ADSL $1270 $0 $500 $40 $250 $10
SDSL(1) $1000 $0 $500 $40 $250 $10
SDSL(2) $2000 $0 $500 $80 $250 $10
T1 $1900 $2500 $500 $375 $250 $10
Hardware charges are approximate and do not include NYS sales
tax.
(1) One pair SDSL, 2.0 meg max, shorter range than two pair.
(2) Two pair SDSL, 2.3 meg max, longer range than one pair, and
usually can fall back to one pair if necessary depending on distance.
However only 1 meg available max on one pair.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
PROPOSAL FOR HIGH SPEED INTERNET
DESCRIPTION
Lightlink Internet is a commercial internet access and service
provider, residing at 25 Fairview Square on Maple Avenue, in Ithaca
NY.
We offer dialup and highspeed connectivity to the internet, and
internet services such as e-mail, web hosting, virtual domains, and
usenet news.
Our backbone consists of a 6 megabit fractional T3 to the Applied
Theory routers at the downtown Tioga Street central office, the same
routers that connect via T3 to Cornell University. We have remote
POPS (points of presence) at the Roy Parks building at 102 Prospect
street in downtown Ithaca, and at Village Green in Pleasant Grove.
TERMS OF SERVICE
1.) Lightlink has no formal affiliation with Cornell University.
2.) Prices may decrease at any time without notice.
3.) Prices may increase on 90 days notice.
4.) Billing is done on a monthly basis, payment is due before the
month of service begins. Payments of 10 months in advance will earn
two months free giving a year of service. Variable charges such
as bandwidth are not included and must be paid on a monthly basis.
5.) There are no contracts between Lightlink and its customers,
they are free to terminate service at any time without penalty.
Payments made a year in advance will be refunded on a prorated basis
as of the last usable day of service.
6.) For T1's, the customer will own the contract with Verizon for
the hard wire between themselves and Lightlink. The customer will pay
that contract on direct billing between Bell and themselves. Verizon
tends to have a minimum of 1 year contracts, with discounts for 5 year
contracts. The 5 year contracts can be broken after 1 year, with a
payment penalty of the difference between the yearly rate and the
amount actually paid.
For xDSL lines, Lightlink will own the contract with Verizon for
the hardwire between the customer and Lightlink.
7.) Lightlink's charges for internet connection are independent
of the high speed protocol used or what the maximum size of the pipe
is. Our charges are based on a flatrate 'presence fee' and a usage
fee on the amount of bandwidth actually used, over a certain free
amount every month. Bandwidth usage in real time is available on our
home page at http://www.lightlink.com/bandwidth.
HIGH SPEED SERVICE OPTIONS
Service options fall into 3 broad categories, T1, DSL, and SDSL.
T1's are highspeed lines provided by Verizon. They are monitored
by Verizon, and are guaranteed by Verizon to have a specified
performance level of 1.5 megabits in both directions. T1's also have
no distance limitations. Although T1's are more expensive than DSL,
and SDSL, they should be considered for mission critical applications.
DSL stands for Digital Subscriber Line. These are in fact the
same wire as a T1, except that they are not monitored by Verizon, and
do not have repeaters built in to them to guarantee performance
levels. As such, performance reliability and speeds are dependent on
physical wire milage from the customer's site to the telephone Central
Office, and on other factors such as noise, cross talk interference,
and bridge taps on the line.
There are two broad categories of DSL, single pair DSL and two
pair SDSL.
SINGLE PAIR DSL
There are three broad categories of single pair DSL, RADSL (Rate
Adaptive DSL), SDSL and MVL (Multiple Virtual Lines).
Single pair RADSL runs on one pair of phone wires, and is thus
cheaper than the two pair SDSL. RADSL is an asymmetric protocol
giving a maximum of 7 megabits/sec downstream and 1 megabit/sec
upstream. Downstream means towards the customer, and upstream means
towards the internet. In practice maximum speeds are rarely obtained
except on very short runs, but experience shows about 1 meg in both
directions for reasonable distances.
The performance speed of RADSL falls off as the distance to the
remote site becomes greater, maximum distance is about 12,000 feet of
actual wire length between the end customer and the ISP. Performance
is also affected by noise on the phone wires, and bridge taps
connecting into the wire at right angles and going off to other
places, mainly because the bridge taps are not terminated properly.
Verizon will not terminate nor remove bridge taps.
RADSL is called Rate Adaptive because it will automatically
adjust itself to find the rate at which it can work. If conditions on
the line change for better or worse, the modems will readapt to faster
or slower speeds to accomodate the changing conditions.
Single pair SDSL provides up to 2.0 megabits in both directions,
but falls off quickly with distance just like RADSL does. It is NOT
rate adaptive, so if the line deterioriates, the modems may drop sync,
and then have to be re synced by hand at a lower rate.
Single pair MVL also runs on one pair of phone lines, and is the
same price as RADSL. Like SDSL, MVL is a symmetric protocol, with
maximum speeds of 768K in both directions, however it can reach to
30,000 feet and is not affected by bridge taps or other influences
that can render a RADSL or SDSL line useless.
MVL is a slower speed version of RADSL designed to accomodate
longer distances over noiser lines. The name "Multiple Virtual Lines"
is more descriptive of what it can do than what it is, but in general
MVL can be considered a slower but more robust version of RADSL. MVL
is however limited to 64 IP numbers, so it is important to put a
gateway in place with internal machines behind the gateway.
Again the 768K maximum speeds are only obtained on short runs,
slower speeds will be obtained on longer and noisier runs, and the
speed will adapt to changing wire conditions. MVL is really only
useful for longer runs where RADSL will not reach, and experience
shows between 200K and 500K of actual performance at such distances.
TWO PAIR SDSL
There is only one generally available two wire protocol and that
is two pair SDSL.
It uses one wire for transmit and the other for receive, thus
extending the performance and length of its reach over RADSL. It is
also a symmetric protocol with maximum speeds of 2.3 megabits in each
direction. Like RADSL, maximum speeds are only obtained on short
runs, but they tend to work well over longer distances than RADSL
because the work is shared between two pairs. SDSL is not however
rate adaptive, the speeds need to be manually adjusted in 128K
increments to the fastest speed at which they will communicate.
Since there are two wires involved instead of one, SDSL costs
more to operate, however the SDSL modem will operate in one wire SDSL
mode which is useful if one wire should go down leaving the other one
operational. The one wire mode has a 1 meg max however.
For this reason, those wishing a more mission critical solution,
who do not wish to pay for a full T1, should strongly consider the two
pair SDSL solution.
PRICING
LIGHTLINK INTERNET PRICING
Lightlink pricing is independent of which hardwire solution is
chosen.
Presence Fee: $250/month or $2500/year.
Free bandwidth: 1 gig/month
Bandwidth Fee: $10/gig
Includes:
1 backup dialup account
Static IPs as needed.
Domain DNS as needed.
Virtual domains as needed belonging to the customer.
Unlimited e-mail forwarding on virtual domain
Unlimited pop e-mail boxes as needed.
Usenet News
Shell account
FTP, home, and web space (25 meg of disk space total)
HARDWARE PRICING
The following prices are approximate and do not include sales
tax, exact quotes will be given upon request and may depend on the
actual site including its distance from the central office.
T1
$500 install to Verizon
$375/month to Verizon, 5 year contract
$2500 Hardware at our end
$1900 Hardware at customer end (router + CSU/DSU)
RADSL or MVL single pair DSL.
$500 install to Verizon for single pair
$40/month to Verizon
$1270 hardware, covers both ends.
SDSL single pair DSL.
$500 install to Verizon for single pair
$40/month to Verizon
$1000 hardware, covers both ends.
SDSL two pair DSL
$500 install to Verizon for both pairs
$40/month to Verizon for pair one
$40/month to Verizon for pair two
$2000 hardware, covers both ends
Homer Wilson Smith
Jane Elizabeth Staller