Verizon looks for SLA edge

Verizon is hoping to gain favor with business customers by offering service level agreements that include the edge of the network — even in places where it doesn’t own the local network. The idea is to guarantee the performance of its private IP network for the increasing volume of applications such as voice and video that have more specific performance requirements.

The new SLAs cover jitter, packet delay and packet delivery ratio — all things that affect real-time applications.

“Customers are bringing more and more applications onto the [WAN], and our private IP service has been the foundation for that,” said Mike Marcellin, vice president of global product marketing for Verizon Business. “Now they are looking to see their applications get performance they expect on an end-to-end basis. Most SLAs don’t extend to the customer edge.”  

What customers are finding, he said, is that even if the core network is performing to its SLA, if the last mile isn’t, real-time applications aren’t going to work. For Verizon Business to take on the SLA challenge, it must now work more closely with third-party providers, such as other local incumbents, that provide the edge network outside Verizon’s franchise region.

“We are the single point of contact, and we are giving them an end-to-end guarantee,” Marcellin said. “We have a robust set of SLAs already; this just gives the customer that much more comfort. We give them a strong SLA that reflects the fact they are putting more into this network.”

There is no additional charge for the new SLAs, known as Customer Edge SLAs, which are offered alongside existing Provider Edge SLAs. A customer can invoke either in a given month, he said. Verizon will refund up to 20% of the monthly bill for a violation, with some restrictions based on loop length and the amount of traffic oversubscription.