DALLAS--The telecom industry needs to develop better service level agreements, especially for small to mid-sized businesses that use DSL and high-speed T-1 connections, Linda Beck, president of New Edge Networks, said this week.

Speaking at the Telephony LIVE Telecom Summit in Dallas, Beck said the industry needs to develop services that fill the price gap between affordable DSL offerings and faster, more guaranteed T-1 connections that many small businesses find too expensive.

“Current SLAs are nothing more than marketing fodder,” Beck said. “They are simply a way to create differentiation among service providers. They are of little use to most businesses, especially SMBs that don’t have time or resources to track and initiate credits. As businesses become more dependent on their DSL-based networks, current SLAs will give us a black eye. This needs to change to avoid customer backlash and stimulate increased usage of DSL as a stepping stone to full T-1 based networks.”

According to New Edge, the industry standard for repairs on business DSL lines is 24 to 48 hours, compared to a mean time to repair for T-1 lines or frame relay connections of four hours. DSL costs are often under $100 a line, compared to $400 or more for T-1.

Beck said New Edge is considering SLAs that will guarantee its small to mid-sized business network performance that will support specific applications, with a premium option to automatically initiate a credit for the customer when New Edge doesn’t meet its SLA commitment.
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