A startup CTO achieves the ideal: Better service at a lower cost

People tend not to like telcos and, given my experience, I can understand why.

Our tech start-up, KnowRoaming, was close to launching, and I needed to get a fibre line in our building before the launch date arrived. We were expecting to grow quickly, and generate a lot of traffic through our companion app, which works with our KnowRoaming SIM Sticker. Fast, reliable Internet was a must-have, and we knew only fibre could give us the direct connection we needed to make that happen.

The problem was, the fibre we arranged to have installed wasn’t being installed. Despite numerous discussions with our chosen provider, we were still using closed loop ADSL lines. In addition, the contract with our existing provider was about to end. There was no way we could get fibre installed in two weeks, so we were trying to come to terms with the reality that we’d have to renew the contract, break it when the fibre was finally ready, and pay the penalty fees.

Luckily, that didn’t have to happen. Coincidentally, Allstream already had a fibre switch in our building. Therefore, Allstream’s contractors and cable installers simply had to run the fibre from our building’s demarcation point to our office and it was ready to go before the two-week deadline.

We were looking for a reliable, low-fee solution for core termination and a secure network that our employees could access remotely when they were out of the office, and Allstream’s solution delivered on both fronts. We also wanted to sever our relationship with our hosting service provider and manage the task ourselves. Allstream’s virtualized services made that possible.

Now we have the speed you’d expect from a fibre connection, with less latency, greater reliability and improved throughputs from what we had before. And not only are we seeing better service, but we’ve managed to slash our bill in half—from $1,200 in hosting fees to $600—while tripling the amount of services we’re receiving.