Australian start-up Fusion Networks has debuted a technology- and carrier-agnostic DSL bonding service aimed as a stopgap measure during the lengthy NBN rollout.
DSL bonding is the process of augmenting broadband speeds by combining multiple lines into a single connection. Binding connections effectively doubles their speeds, minus an overhead of typically around 5-10%.
While the technology has been around for some time, it is relatively new to Australia. Local ISPs Internode and iiNet offer two of the few such services in the market.
Fusion Broadband founder and managing director Jason Maude told TelecomAsia the advantage of its service over iiNet's is that it works on Layer 3, and so is not tied to any operator.
“Having two business class connections, maybe from different suppliers, gives you redundancy,” he said. “Not just in the connection but on the backhaul, on the DSLAM, on all of the networking equipment behind the DSLAM, the whole layer 2 network.”
Even good business class SLAs with service providers allow a network to be down for a better part of a business day each month, he said, making redundancy a valuable commodity.
The agnosticism also allows Fusion to bond multiple xDSL-based access technologies, and even some wireless options. “ It's like bonding but it's almost putting it in the cloud,” Maude said.