I am often asked which carrier is the best MPLS solution. The answer is…It depends.
All carriers and their strong points and their weaknesses, so the decision is invariably a compromise of sorts. You need to weigh cost versus ease of management. For instance, a single carrier solution for a global company makes it easy, but will always cost the most. What most customers do not realize is that the single carrier is, in fact, usually using a variety of carriers to service the global locations…even AT&T! You pay for the ease of having a single bill and a single point of contact.
For companies that need to manage their costs more closely, they can often obtain a better solution and save 30% on their recurring costs by using the best carriers for each geography and then interconnecting these networks at the appropriate telecom hotels where the varied carriers all connect to. This requires paying for co-location space to house your routers as well as the processes to ping your routers continuously to monitor them. Obviously, if you don’t have the infrastructure to be able to manage this yourself, you can either utilize an out-source service provider, or just go with the single source solution.
What is important to understand is that there is no best carrier for every Wide Area Network. Using a consultant can help you sift through the sales pitches and understand exactly what the best options are.
