Backbone Directory: Aleron

Aleron is a privately held backbone operator majority owned by the investment bank Goldman Sachs. The company's core product is based on a 100 percent "port availability" guarantee.

Aleron, became an Internet backbone provider on October 3, 2001, when it purchased the backbone then owned by Telia Internet, Inc.

The Telia backbone dates back to 1994, when it was operated by Apex Global Internet Services (AGIS).

Aleron has designed its network to be application agnostic, able to support voice, video, and data. With Guaranteed Bandwidth Connection (GBC), the company says it can customize bandwidth in 1 Mbps increments from 1 Mbps up to OC-12, and can process an upgrade in 24 hours.

Aleron offers flat-rate and per-megabit pricing options. The company touts its GBC product (right) as a more reliable connection for business. The connection is capable of carrying value-added services, supporting distributed enterprises as well as virtual ISPs.

The product uses an MPLS-enabled backbone that is designed to provide one-router-hop connectivity (with an observed maximum of three router hops) between any two points in Aleron's backbone cloud.

Aleron's SLA calls for 100 percent guaranteed port availability, packet loss of no more than 0.005 percent over a one month period, and network latency of no more than 85 milliseconds across the backbone (25 milliseconds per 1,000-mile round-trip). These guarantees apply to Aleron's backbone. Aleron is not responsible for problems caused by customer equipment or by customers' networks.

Finally, Aleron guarantees that it will notify customers if there is ever an outage anywhere on its backbone that lasts for five contiguous minutes.

The SLA provides real penalties if Aleron fails at any stage of the service process, from installation onward. For example, the draft SLA shown to ISP-Planet says that install delays of up to five days result in free installation, and longer installs give the customer a 5 percent discount on the first month of service in addition to free installation.

Major hub cities
[U.S.] Washington, Palo Alto, Chicago, New York, Seattle, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Miami, Dallas, Denver