SERVICE DESCRIPTION
“Wires-Only” Internet access Service
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CONTENTS
1.
Internet Service Introduction ...................................................................................................................... 4
2.
Connection Types ...................................................................................................................................... 8
ADSL2+ ......................................................................................................................................................... 8
FTTC .............................................................................................................................................................. 9
EFM - Ethernet in the First Mile ..................................................................................................................... 9
Fibre Ethernet leased lines .......................................................................................................................... 10
Relative Throughputs................................................................................................................................... 11
3.
Customer site equipment ......................................................................................................................... 12
Overview ...................................................................................................................................................... 12
Customer Site Requirements ...................................................................................................................... 12
Circuit Presentation ..................................................................................................................................... 13
ADSL........................................................................................................................................................ 13
FTTC ........................................................................................................................................................ 13
EFM - Ethernet in the First Mile ............................................................................................................... 14
Fibre Ethernet leased lines ...................................................................................................................... 14
4.
Resilience options .................................................................................................................................... 16
Overview ...................................................................................................................................................... 16
Fibre and Copper ..................................................................................................................................... 17
Dual Fibre Ethernet – using different Carriers fibre ................................................................................. 18
Dual Fibre Ethernet – using Openreach ‘tails’ ......................................................................................... 18
Common Tail routes ................................................................................................................................ 18
Openreach Resilience ............................................................................................................................. 19
5.
Service Presentation ................................................................................................................................ 20
Wires-Only ................................................................................................................................................... 20
Customer Routers ........................................................................................................................................ 20
IP Addressing .............................................................................................................................................. 20
MTU ............................................................................................................................................................. 21
6.
Optional Service features ........................................................................................................................ 21
Monitoring .................................................................................................................................................... 21
DNS ............................................................................................................................................................. 21
7.
Quoting & PreSales support .................................................................................................................... 22
Ordering & Provisioning ................................................................................................................................... 23
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Provisioning ................................................................................................................................................. 23
Site Surveys & Circuit Installation Lead-times ............................................................................................. 23
8.
In-life Service and Support ...................................................................................................................... 24
9.
Service Levels ......................................................................................................................................... 24
Monitoring & Management........................................................................................................................... 24
Service Performance ................................................................................................................................... 24
Availability .................................................................................................................................................... 24
10. Billing ....................................................................................................................................................... 25
11. Site Connection Upgrades ....................................................................................................................... 25
Copper services ........................................................................................................................................... 25
Fibre services .............................................................................................................................................. 26
Adding Resilience ........................................................................................................................................ 26
Upgrade Request Process........................................................................................................................... 26
12. Minor Service Changes ........................................................................................................................... 27
13. Planned Maintenance .............................................................................................................................. 27
14. Termination of Service ............................................................................................................................. 27
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1. Internet Service Introduction
The Convergence Group are a specialist, business focussed, ISP (Internet Service Provider) and wide area
network operator.
The Convergence Group deliver Internet services nation-wide to 
Customers offices

Data Centre sites

or Centralised Internet access as part of a private wide area network service
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The business ISP services are delivered from Convergence Group’s Internet network based around our main
data centres in Telehouse – the hub of UK Internet activity, the London Hosting Centre and BT Tower.
The Convergence ISP network has multiple, diverse & high-capacity connections to the global Internet
‘backbone’. The Convergence Group are members of LINX – the London Internet Exchange: the UK largest
Internet Exchange and third largest globally. Our peering at LINX gives us connections to the majority of the
Internet community in Europe. In addition our International Transit connections with leading global networks
give our customers a high-performance Internet service to locations world-wide.
The Convergence Group are also a Local Internet Registry (LIR) of RIPE (Réseaux IP Européens - the
European Network Coordination Centre), the European authority for Internet address allocations. As an LIR
Convergence allocate and manage the use of fixed public IP addresses for its customers in accordance with
current RIPE guidelines.
Linking our Internet core network to our customers are national networks from the UK’s major carriers. The
Convergence Group are carrier agnostic and have established wholesale partnerships and Network-toNetwork Interfaces with the major carriers. This gives us the capability to provide national coverage with a
comprehensive range of connections – seamlessly as part of one service from a single supplier. Customers
sites can be provided with two connections – for example from different carriers – configured to provide
automatic backup where site resilience is required.
The Convergence Group core network is connected by diverse high-capacity Network to Network Interface
connections to UK national networks from 
BT Openreach

Talk Talk Business

BT Media & Broadcast

Virgin Media Business

BT Wholesale

Vodafone (C&W)

Colt


EuNetworks
and connections to many On-net Data
Centres

SSE (Neos)
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The national coverage of Convergences’ Internet services gives customers a complete range of connection
types for their sites, with optional resilience where required, from which to choose when selecting a service
to meet the needs of their business.

Business Internet Service
o A Business only ISP – dedicated to business customer with no residential customers
o Understand the businesses requirements for online presence, business continuity and disaster
recovery
o Flexible service – topologies, connection types, contracts.
o Scalable service with Resilience options
o 24x365 Core Network Monitoring
o One point of Contact: 24x365 UK based Service Desk
o Specialist Network Engineering Technical Support
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


Comprehensive range of Site Connection types
o Small sites with Private Broadband connections –

ADSL2+ Broadband

FTTC – Fibre to the Cabinet Broadband
o Medium sites with –

EFM – Ethernet in the First Mile

Fibre Ethernet leased line services – up to 100Mbps
o Major sites with –

Fibre Ethernet leased line services – up to 1Gbps and beyond

Dual carrier fibre for resilience
o At any sites these connections types can be combined for a resilient service – for example:

Dual Fibre Ethernet – using different Telco Carriers

Fibre Ethernet with EFM backup

EFM with FTTC backup

FTTC with ADSL2+ backup
Data Centres

Many major data centres already ‘on-net’

Fibre Ethernet access as required to other data centres

Internet access for customers Hosted & Co-Located systems
Centralised Internet access
o Centralised Internet access for private MPLS WAN’s via hosted firewalls
The Wires-Only Internet service includes; circuit supply, circuit installation and service rental with reactive
supplier management.
For details of the Centralised Internet services as part of a private MPLS WAN see Service Description
documents for –

Convergence Group MPLS WAN Service

Convergence Group Managed Firewall Service
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2. Connection Types
The Internet service offers national coverage for many different connections types, including:-
ADSL2+
For small sites and home-workers the almost universally available ADSL broadband connections provided
via BT’s industry leading 21st Century Network are the most cost-effective connectivity solution. A prerequisite for an ADSL service is a BT PSTN phone line, which Convergence Group can supply if required
(Note that single sourcing the Line and the ADSL service with Convergence Group will avoid potential dual
supplier issues & delays in provisioning or trouble-shooting if the PSTN is supplied by a 3rd Party).
An existing ADSL service can be migrated from the current provider to the Convergence Group however this
migration process will necessarily mean a period of interruption to service while the migration occurs and a
new router is connected. This interruption can be avoided if the new Convergence Group service and router
are on a new or spare PSTN Line.
ADSL is a shared service – and, although private, traffic across the national networks flows over paths that
are used by many other ADSL users. As a result the service may slow somewhat at busy times. ADSL is
asymmetrical; the downstream speed is greater than the upstream speed to suit the typical profile of users
mostly accessing material outside their site and only generating small amounts of upstream traffic. The
asymmetry needs to be taken into consideration if a site must upload large files or has other particular
requirements for upstream bandwidth.
The performance of an ADSL connection will depend upon the sites location – in particular the length/quality
of the PSTN line. In most urban & suburban areas the local exchanges now provide ADSL2+ services which
achieve up-to 20Mbps on some short lines, with typical speeds for most users being in the 10-15Mbps range
on good lines, falling to a just few Mbps on long/poor lines.
In some rural and other less populated areas, the local exchanges have not yet been upgraded to ADSL2+
and they currently only provide ADSL Max up-to 8Mbps services. In these more dispersed areas the
majority of users will be on medium-long lines where, there’s little difference between the speeds achieved
by ADSL Max or ADSL2+, so in practice most users on these exchanges won’t be overly disadvantaged by
not currently being able to have ADSL2+ services.
Note that the Hull area is a Kingston Communications monopoly & not part of BT’s national network.
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The UK national network includes all of Northern Ireland, for sites in Eire the Convergence Group can also
provide a range of site connectivity options which includes ADSL and Fibre leased lines - please let us have
details of your requirements for any sites in Eire.
FTTC
For many urban locations, and increasingly more widely, Fibre to the Cabinet (FTTC) services are now
available. By placing the broadband electronics in street cabinets, close to the user’s site, the broadband
performance can be significantly enhanced. The system uses Very High Speed ADSL technology between
the site and the street cabinet. The cabinet is connected to high capacity fibre linking it, thorough the local
exchange, onward to the national network. The much shorter copper line not only has much higher
performance but should also be more reliable.
FTTC can deliver speeds of between 40 and 80Mbps and also has increased upstream performance making
it suitable for somewhat larger branch sites, heavy users & those with greater upstream requirements.
A BT PSTN phone line is still a pre-requisite for an FTTC service and the same national coverage; Hull, NI &
Eire arrangements as for ADSL.
EFM - Ethernet in the First Mile
EFM also uses the same local copper cable infrastructure as PSTN phone lines and so is widely available. It
combines multiple, dedicated copper pairs into a single Data service delivering a higher capacity copper data
connection than Broadband. EFM performs technically and contractually as the equivalent of a traditional
leased line. EFM does not need, nor does it provide, a PSTN phone service.
The EFM service gives a dedicated connection of between 3Mb to 20M depending upon line length and has
the strong service level agreement needed to suit those medium sized branch offices where fibre isn’t
available and it is useful as backup for sites with a fibre leased line.
Although the headline speed of an EFM service is less than headline speed of FTTC, its throughput of
sustained data transfer is higher because it is a dedicated, rather than shared, connection.
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Fibre Ethernet leased lines
The Convergence Group are carrier agnostic and can provide WAN services utilising all of the UK’s major
carriers. This capability enables customers to benefit from whichever Telco carrier’s infrastructure is most
technically and commercially suited to their site’s needs.
Fibre Ethernet WAN services are ideal for large branches and key enterprise sites. They are delivered to the
customer’s premises via dedicated high-capacity and highly reliable fibre. New installations will normally be
on 100Mbps bearer circuits so that the network service can be provisioned at an initial bandwidth between
10Mbps and 100Mbps in 10Mbps increments. The service is then scalable with bandwidth upgrades in
10Mbps increments available on short lead-times at nominal cost.
For large sites with very high bandwidth requirements, Fibre Ethernet services delivered over 1Gbps or
higher are available either directly into the customers office or to data centres, replication and disaster
recovery sites.
The same agnostic carrier relationships also offer the opportunity to provide resilience at key sites such as
server rooms & data centres by using diverse circuits from two different carriers – see the Resilience options
section for more details.
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Relative Throughputs
Although Broadband technologies have advanced significantly since their early days of just fixed 512K, 1M
and 2Mbps services and headline speeds currently range up to 80Mbps, it’s important to keep in mind two
key features of copper Broadband services: they are shared services and throughput will be constrained at
busy times, there is an upper limit to their capacity – they’re not scalable.
Fibre Ethernet leased lines are dedicated and highly scalable – the same fibre can support 10M, 100M and
1Gbps services. Copper EFM ‘leased line equivalent’ services are a hybrid; they’re dedicated but not
scalable. The diagram gives an indication of the relative throughput of the different type of services -
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3. Customer site equipment
Overview
The Convergence Group “Wires-Only” Internet service does not include customer site equipment. The
equipment to connect to the sites Local Area Network must be provided by the customer. Site router
configuration guidelines are included in Section 5 – Service Presentation.
The Telco carrier will install equipment to terminate their cable (NTE: Network Terminating Equipment).
The Telco NTE will vary depending upon the carrier and type of connection. The carrier termination point,
the router location, suitable power sockets and the connection to the end-customers LAN or border network
must all be adjacent to each other at each of the WAN sites.
Customer Site Requirements
The customer should ensure that their site(s) provide the necessary physical and network environment to
accommodate the WAN service. The Customers site must provide:Customer Site Environmental Requirements
Environment
Suitable for IT equipment:
Secure, office or comms/server room or equipment rack/cabinet
Dry, Dust free & temperature controlled
Accommodation
Sufficient space to install & have access for maintenance to
the Router(s), cabling & NTE(s)
Mounting
Rack mounting preferred
The carriers’ circuit termination location, NTE location and Power sockets must all be adjacent to one
another and within a standard 1.5m cables length.
Cabling from the NTE to the customer’s router or other equipment is not included; this is the customers’
responsibility.
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Circuit Presentation
ADSL
The copper PSTN line is terminated on a standard telephone socket wall box. New line installations may
have socket with separate PSTN phone and RJ-11 Broadband connections; existing installations will need a
Micro-Filter to provide the RJ-11 Broadband connection. No mains power is required by the PSTN line.
Telco NTE
Space
standard telephone socket
Power
None
Presentation
Standard Openreach PSTN socket (BS 6312 - 431A / 631A plugs)
A customer site router which meets Openreach’s ADSL specifications should be used. please refer to the
Openreach ‘Suppliers' Information Note‘ documentation for full details.
http://www.sinet.bt.com/
SIN 346 - ADSL Interface Description
FTTC
The copper PSTN line is terminated on a standard telephone socket wall box. FTTC installations will have a
new style face plate installed (Service Specific Front Plate: SSFP) with a separate RJ-11 Broadband
connection for the Openreach provided VDSL Openreach NTE equipment. The Openreach NTE requires
mains power – a single 13A socket.
The site router will also require a 13A power socket; therefore an FTTC service will require 2 x 13A sockets
in total.
Telco NTE
Space
Size (HxWxD approx.)
Mounting
Power
Presentation
standard telephone socket + NTE below
40mm x 250mm x 250mm plus small external power unit
Free-standing / place on a rack shelf (not supplied)
1 x 13A socket – 15W (approx.) plus a second socket for the site router
Ethernet RJ-45 10/100Base-T
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EFM - Ethernet in the First Mile
Multiple copper pairs are used for EFM – between 2 & 8 lines depending on the service – they are
terminated on standard telephone socket wall boxes. NB: these lines do not provide nor do they require a
PSTN phone service – they are dedicated to EFM.
Special cables connect the multiple telephone sockets to the carriers NTE device which requires mains
power – one 13A socket.
The site router will also require a 13A power socket; therefore an EFM service will require 2 x 13A sockets in
total.
Telco NTE
Space
Size (HxWxD approx.)
Mounting
Power
Presentation
standard telephone socket + NTE below
40mm x 250mm x 250mm plus small external power unit
Free-standing / place on a rack shelf (not supplied)
1 x 13A socket – 15W (approx.) plus a second socket for the site router
Ethernet RJ-45 10/100Base-T
Fibre Ethernet leased lines
Fibre cables will normally terminate in a passive unit where the individual fibres are split out. This may be
located in an area of the building dedicated to carrier’s equipment with a fibre ‘tail’ entering the customer’s
office or the customer may have to accommodate the passive fibre unit. The fibre tail will terminate on a
carriers optical NTE device which will require mains power – one 13A socket.
The site router will also require a 13A power socket; therefore a Fibre service will require 2 x 13A sockets in
total.
Telco NTE
Space
Size (HxWxD approx.)
Mounting
Power
standard telephone socket + NTE below
40mm x 250mm x 250mm plus small external power unit
Rack mounting supplied
1 x 13A socket – 15W (approx.) plus a second socket for the site router
Presentation
10/100Mbps
1Gbps
Ethernet RJ-45 100Base-T/100Base-TX
Depends on carrier: 1000Base-T / 1000 BaseLX / 1000 BaseSX
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4. Resilience options
Overview
By combining two links from the options available in the Connection Types section; one as Primary and the
other as Backup, each with its own router to avoid single points of failure, a very high-availability resilient
service can be achieved.
The site routers can be configured with a standby router protocol or a load balancing mechanism which
together with dynamic routing across the dual Convergence links & core can provide an automatic backup
for the site connectivity.
The dynamic protocols allow fail-over in the event of any single failure of a communications link or router to
be ‘transparent’ so that incoming and outgoing traffic are diverted over backup link with only a short
interruption to service.
Note that if the backup link has a lesser capacity – for example a 10M EFM service backing up a 100Mbps
fibre service – then during fail-over the service will have reduced throughput capacity.
The pairing of connection types can be chosen to match the sites technical and budgetary requirement from
the combinations listed below-
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Fibre and Copper
Since copper is ubiquitous and reasonable level of throughput can be achieved at many sites either with
EFM or FTTC services, a cost-effective combination fibre primary & copper backup services is well suited to
many sites’ needs for connectivity resilience.
The preferred combinations are Fibre + EFM or Fibre + FTTC. A combination of Fibre + ADSL is technically
possible, but unless the fibre service is being used at low service bandwidths, ADSL will be inadequate as a
fail-over service.
Ideally fibre from an alternative carrier will be used for the primary connection in conjunction with an
Openreach copper connection for the backup. For sites where no alternative carrier fibre is available,
Openreach fibre copper will have to be used. The diagram shows both variants –
Depending upon local circumstances the Openreach fibre and copper cables may have separate routing –
for example the fibre may be in underground duct and the copper on poles overhead - which achieves some
separation and helps to improve resilience.
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Dual Fibre Ethernet – using different Carriers fibre
For Data Centres, larger sites and customer Server Rooms that are in locations where dual carrier fibre is
available it’s possible to achieve separation of the links over two different physical paths all the way from the
customer’s site to the core network:


Carrier A fibre through their local point-presence, across their national network to one NNI
Carrier B via the local exchange across a different national network to a different NNI
Dual Fibre Ethernet – using Openreach ‘tails’
For some sites only Openreach fibre is available, in this case there are two options to achieve the most
feasible level of resilience -
Common Tail routes
A high degree of resilience can still be achieved by two different carriers for most of the link, but both
will have to use parallel Openreach tails between the exchange and the site.
However it’s important that all parties are aware that a common physical route will be used for the
‘last mile’ of the Primary and the Backup services. This means that physical damage to those ducts
or cables – for example being cut by streetworks – could affect both services.
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Openreach Resilience
Alternatively - at a cost – Openreach can provide the backup circuit via a different route. This will
often require a new dig as well as additional cabling. The customer should be made aware that
“Excess Construction Charges” for new dig /ducts can be very high and the lead-times long
depending upon the location of the civil engineering dig as permissions may be required from
landlords, highway authorities, councils, etc.
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5. Service Presentation
Wires-Only
The Convergence “Wires-Only” Internet service is presented physically as a port on the Telco
carriers NTE as described in Section 3 – Customer site equipment.
Customer Routers
The Convergence “Wire-Only” Internet service requires customer routers & their configuration to
meet the following requirements:
Support BGP routing protocol

Adhere to the maximum MTU size of 1500 bytes

Use CG allocated RFC1918 private IP addresses for the WAN link

Optionally support ICMP / SNMP access for CG NOC monitoring
IP Addressing
As a Local Internet Registry (LIR) of RIPE (Réseaux IP Européens - the European Network
Coordination Centre), the European authority for Internet addresses allocations, Convergence will
provide an allocation of fixed public IP addresses in accordance with RIPE guidelines.
The WAN link uses private RFC1918 – 10.x.y.z addressing. The site border network has two
addressing options:
The default configuration is to allocate a /31 address range. This give 2 Public IP addresses:
one is allocated to the routers Ethernet LAN interface and the other to the Ethernet interface
on the customer’s equipment (typically a firewall).

As a chargeable option additional addresses – subject to RIPE guidelines - are available.
For example with a /30 range of 8 addresses range: the first address is the Network ID, the
last address is the Broadcast ID, leaving 6 addresses. One of these usable addresses is
allocated to the routers Ethernet LAN interface as before, leaving 5 addresses for Customer
use.
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These configuration options apply to single link, non-resilient services (and could be used for dual
Primary & Backup links on a single router, however the default configuration for a resilient service is
dual links and dual routers requiring the use of 3 Public IP addresses from the allocated range (one
for a Virtual Router plus addresses Router 1, Router 2).
MTU
The largest Maximum Transmission Unit (MTU) size configured on the site router should be 1500
bytes
6. Optional Service features
Monitoring
Where required – for example to supplement customers own Monitoring system or Network
Operation Centre (NOC) capabilities - the Convergence Group can optionally provide service
monitoring by CG’s automated monitoring systems. A range of monitoring from basic PING
availability checks to more detailed utilisation & performance parameters using SNMP are available.
The monitoring functions can be further extended with reporting & NOC support where required.
Please let us have details of your requirements for Monitoring, Reporting or NOC services.
DNS
Domain Name services for customers using the Convergence Group Internet service can be
provided as a chargeable option. They include hosting data on Domain Name Servers, Primary &
Secondary DNS roles, adding and modifying resource records and Zone File transfers.
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7. Quoting & PreSales support
To support customers in making the right choices amongst all the available service options to suit the needs
of their business, Convergence Group provide a number of resources; they include an account manager,
desk based sales support team and an Online Portal for circuit quotes.
The portal is part of Convergence Groups wide ranging investment program to drive efficiency and process
automation. The latest release of the portal adds a further set of carriers to the quoted connections options
and the roadmap for planned future portal development will continue the addition of more capabilities &
features. https://portal.convergencegroup.co.uk/
Please contact your Convergence Group account manager for a Portal Account if you’re not yet logging-on –
just quote your individual email address and once validated we’ll create a Portal Account and email the
details to you.
Once logged on simply choose the relevant product option from the portal New Quote drop down, enter the
site postcode, confirm the address from the on-screen list then enter the type of connections required to get
a quote for all the relevant carrier services available at that site - in just a matter of moments.
One quote can include multiple connection types and the prices for all available options will be displayed
both on screen and also sent to your email address. Portal quotes can also be exported in Excel format for
your convenience.
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Ordering & Provisioning
The account manager & desk based sales support team can provide support for Portal quotations for WiresOnly Internet services. To order against a quote contact the team to obtain an order form - this should be
completed with the specifics for the customer’s site(s): managing contact details, Site contact details, Site
access, Space & Power, Floor/Room/Rack etc., and then signed by an authorised signatory and returned.
Provisioning
The Telco carrier may survey the site before being able to confirm circuit completion lead-time. This
information, together with a date for a Telco Installation Engineer site visit, will be sent by the Provisioning
team with regular updates to the customers managing contact.
When the carrier circuit is complete the Provisioning team will notify the customers managing contact, the
Convergence Service desk with circuit details & the Convergence Finance dept. to commence billing
Site Surveys & Circuit Installation Lead-times
With the very widespread use of modern communications technologies many existing commercial buildings
will have some fibre infrastructure present or at least have fibre nearby and the copper cables required for
PSTN & Broadband services are almost universal.
The Convergence Group have strong operational relationships with our Telco carrier partners, with regular
service & progress meetings between the operational teams on both sides. Convergence Group will always
use its best endeavours to progress orders smoothly and report any issues or delays if they arise.
The carriers, their local infrastructure and the local situations at or near customer’s sites do sometimes
present practical difficulties to completing the installation of a new service; prominent amongst these are
‘wayleave’ permissions from land owners & building lords to run new cables or undertake civil engineering
work to install ducts or other streetworks.
Once the Convergence Group Provisioning Team have all the necessary site details to place an fully detailed
order for a site, the carrier will undertake a survey to confirm the work needed to install the new service. This
survey should identify if the standard lead-time can be met or if any additional work is required that adds cost
and/or extends the lead-time. If wayleaves are required the lead-time can be open ended. When delays
cause an unacceptable impact to the solution the Convergence Group teams will work with the customer and
our supplier partners to escalate where possible and/or facilitate alternatives.
Connection Type
Standard Lead-time
Subject to Survey
Fibre Ethernet leased lines
Up to 65 working days
EFM ‘leased line equivalent’
Up to 50 working days
FTTC Broadband
Up to 20 working days
ADSL Broadband
Up to 10 working days
PSTN Lines
Up to 20 working days
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8. In-life Service and Support
Once the service is live its details will be recorded on the Convergence Group Service Desk system. In the
event of any issues with the service contact the Service Desk 24x365 to report the problem.
The Convergence Group Service Desk team and the 2nd and 3rd line Support Engineers who back them up
are entirely UK based and all experienced networking specialists dedicated to supporting our WAN and
Internet services.
The Service Desk team will manage contact with the Telco Carrier and communicate updates between the
customer and the carrier.
9. Service Levels
Monitoring & Management
The Convergence Group core network supporting the customers Internet connection is monitored for
availability and performance 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
Optionally, where supported by a customer router configuration, the Convergence Group can perform basic
availability monitoring. If SNMP access is not provided availability must be measured by the customers
monitoring systems as the Convergence Group will not be able to performing their own availability
monitoring. As a chargeable option the Convergence Group can additionally configure remote monitoring of
other WAN performance parameters via customer site routers if the customer allows suitable SNMP readonly access.
Any lack of availability will be dealt with by the Service Desk team who will be the point of contact for any
service related issues.
Service Performance
To ensure high levels of performance for the customers Internet services, the Convergence Group also
measure key parameters tracking the underlying performance of Convergence Group Internet service core
network. This monitoring identifies any issues within the core network and keeps the engineering teams
informed of the day-to-day operation and performance of the service; it also provided data used for the
longer term capacity planning and development growth of the network.
Availability
The target availability for a service depends upon the type of connection and its resilience options and is
calculated over a 12 month period from the service start date.
The target fix time also depends upon on the type of connection.
Please note that, unlike Fibre & EFM services, Broadband services have limited SLA’s. The standard service
level for ADSL and FTTC Broadband services is 40 working hours. This can be reduced at extra costs to 20
working hours with Enhanced Care options on both the PSTN Line & the Broadband service.
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Connection Type
Target Availability
Target Time to Restore
99.999%
6 Hours
99.9%
6 Hours
99.5%
6 Hours
Single Fibre Ethernet
99%
6 Hours
EFM
98%
8 Hours
FTTC
97%
ADSL
95%
Dual Fibre Ethernet
Dual Diverse Fibre
Primary & Backup
Dual Fibre Ethernet
One Carrier Fibre
Primary & Backup
Fibre Ethernet Primary
EFM / FTTC Backup
40 working hours
(20 working hours at extra cost)
40 working hours
(20 working hours at extra cost)
For dual connection resilient services, availability is measured with respect to the service as a whole – i.e. a
failure of the primary connection where service continued via the backup connection does not constitute
unavailability.
10. Billing
When a new service installation is completed the hand-over to the customer will include the issue of a
Finished Order form by the Convergence Provisioning team and the commencement of Billing by the
Finance team. The Finished Order form will contain the technical details of the service and give the go-live
date which will be the anniversary date of the contract. The Convergence Group will Invoice the customer on
completion of a network site for the initial charges and for the first billing period. Invoices for subsequent
billing periods will be issued on the agreed billing frequency.
11. Site Connection Upgrades
Copper services
New installations of Broadband services will either be ADSL2+ or, where available & if required, FFTC.
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Currently FTTC is the highest Broadband speed service available and no further upgrade for this service is
possible. If FTTC becomes available to a site currently using ADSL, it can be upgraded to FTTC.
The FTTC service uses a different type of router to ADSL so a new router will be required in addition to a
one-off upgrade charge. There are two choices for the PSTN Line – either the existing PSTN line used for
ADSL can be converted to FTTC but this will require a period of disruption to service while the upgrade work
takes place, or the FTTC service can be installed on a new, or spare, PSTN line to minimise disruption.
Because EFM services use multiple copper pairs and connect to dedicated equipment in the Exchange, the
upgrade path is more complex and more costly, but in many cases a speed upgrade will be possible,
however there is a fixed maximum speed for an EFM service which depends upon sites location (because of
line length/quality).
Fibre services
New installations of Fibre Ethernet leased line services will typically be on 100Mbps carrier circuits, existing
installations may often use 10Mbps carrier circuits. The fibre used for leased line services is suitable – with
some equipment changes – to deliver 1Gbps or more. The service bandwidth can be ‘soft’ upgraded within
the capacity of the bearer circuit with little or no disruption to service. Major upgrades, say from 20Mbps to
150Mbps would require changes to the bearer circuit/equipment and probably also to the router and would
require some disruption to service. This could be minimised or eliminated either by a new provide, out-ofhours working or the permanent addition of a second circuit initially to facilitate the upgrade and long-term to
act as a backup connection.
Adding Resilience
The Convergence Group recommend the deployment of separate Routers for Primary and Backup
connections, this greatly simplifies the ‘retro-fitting’ of a Backup connection to an existing service. The same
approach is also useful if it is necessary to connect a new site with short lead-times: a Broadband connection
can be installed first to provide a modest working connection while waiting for a Fibre Ethernet leased line to
be installed. When the fibre service is ready, the Broadband connection can be re-configured to operate as a
backup for the fibre primary with minimal disruption.
Upgrade Request Process
The availability of these upgrade options will vary depending upon the sites locations and will involve one-off
costs and changes to rental charges. In the first instance upgrade request should go to your Account
Manager or the sales Support team who will confirm availability, review any alternatives and provide pricing
& lead-time information. If the quotation is acceptable order should be placed via the Account Manager or
the sales Support team as usual.
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12. Minor Service Changes
Change Requests must be addressed to the Convergence Group Service Desk via email
The Technical Support Team will evaluate the requested change, its impact on the customer’s service, the
CG network and the resource required to implement the change. If accepted the Service Desk will confirm
the timing of the change.
13. Planned Maintenance
The Convergence Group Service Desk may from time to time request changes that could affect the endcustomers service, for example for planned maintenance which may be required because of work by the
carriers. The Service Desk will inform the managing contact of this planned change and the proposed time.
Planned maintenance work will normally be performed between 00:00 – 06:00 and will be announced at
least 24 hours in advance.
14. Termination of Service
The quoted service prices will be based upon a particular length of term – typically 36 months for wide area
network services. A Notice Period and Cancellation Charges will apply to early termination of the service by
the customer.
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Convergence Group Networks Ltd
One Cranmore
Cranmore Drive
Shirley, Solihull
West Midlands
B90 4RZ
T:
0845 270 2709
E:
info@convergencegroup.co.uk
W:
www.convergencegroup.co.uk
Registered in England & W ales: 3815471
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