Internet finally gets up to speed with Altech Technology Concepts

Internet technology solutions company, Altech Technology Concepts, has seen an explosive growth in its business, spear headed by its flagship product TC Channel Bonding. This offering contributed substantially to a 50% increase in Internet traffic in the last three months as well as a 43% increase in headcount over the last six months.

This growth comes from the increasing number of clients choosing bonded ADSL Internet access over other more costly high-speed connectivity options and from current clients increasing their Internet activity.

TC Channel Bonding is a “bonded” ADSL high-speed Internet access service innovated by Altech Technology Concepts over two years ago. It gives South African companies enterprise-class connectivity at small business prices, ensuring that high-speed connectivity is now not the domain of big business only.

Deidre Dawson, General Manager of Altech Technology Concepts, says, “The growth in channel bonding bandwidth shows that the market is supporting the view that TC Channel Bonding has carved itself a respectable place in the SA connectivity landscape where customers experience exceptional internet performance while also reducing costs.

Our customers, on three bonded ADSL lines, get the equivalent of a 10Mbps link to the Internet for under R2 500 a month, which is significantly cheaper than an equivalent Diginet Leased Line connection and ten times faster than an average ADSL connection. This means that users experience the Internet in real time - downloading big software updates takes seconds, web pages will appear immediately and Voice over IP calls are not an exercise in frustration. This kind of performance at a reasonable cost gives companies the chance to truly integrate the power of the Internet into their businesses.”

Metropolitan Life implemented TC Channel Bonding as an interim solution four months ago while the organisation was reviewing its Internet architecture. However, Reyaad Berekur, senior network engineer at Metropolitan Life, has been so impressed with the solution that he is looking to keep TC Channel Bonding as part of the life assurer’s access architecture. Metropolitan’s positive response to TC Channel Bonding reflects the general customer experience of both this product and Altech Technology Concepts.

Johann Englebrecht, head of IT at long time Altech Technology Concepts’ client, Goal Technology Solutions, a key player in gated communities says, “The customer care is excellent, with our account manager making weekly calls to check up and address any problems immediately. Altech Technology Concepts has gone the extra mile and taken up issues with Telkom on our behalf to ensure that TC Channel Bonding is working to its optimum.”

As demonstrated by the implementation at tour operator, Springbok Atlas, TC Channel Bonding has proven to be an excellent alternative to an MPLS network for companies looking for an inter-branch solution. Springbok Atlas uses the bonded channel offering to connect its branches across the country.

“TC Channel Bonding has allowed us to run our inter-branch VoIP network at four of our main branches at a fraction of the cost of a leased line solution. The channel bonding makes the solution very scalable for our future growth,” comments Neil Maxwell, IT Manager at Springbok Atlas.

“An MPLS solution providing 1Mbps across five sites would cost in the region of R38 000 per month. TC Channel Bonding with equivalent speeds across fives sites – two lines at the four branches and four lines at head office – is a lot less - R10 000 per month,” says Dawson.

“It is in our interest to ensure that the service and experience we deliver to the market is exceptional and exceeds our customers’ expectations. By providing a world class service that allows them to experience the internet as it should be experienced, means that they are motivated to use the internet more. When they use more they increase their bandwidth usage with us - a win-win situation,” she concludes.

Example 1

This is an example of a client running 3 bonded ADSL lines where in the space of 10 minutes they downloaded 863MB of data from the internet. This was equivalent to the customer having a 10Mbit leased line connection to the internet but at a fraction of the cost.

Example 2

This graph represents a customer running 4 bonded ADSL lines. In the space of 4 minutes average they consistently ran at 12.5Mb/s and downloaded 486MB of data from the internet.