Studies have shown that the second most common reason for downtime is circuit failure on the Tier 1 backbone, the major data highway. To guard against this potential problem, we have two Tier-1 providers. If one has problems, we can route traffic down the other one. Furthermore, because we are OnNet with Frontier GlobalCenter and Qwest, we share their digital distribution architecture, which includes private peering network connections to major Internet carriers such as MCI, Sprint, UUNET, EUNET, AT&T, AOL, Best, Erols, @Home, IBM Advantis and others. These private peering arrangements allow us to exchange packets of data with every major backbone carrier in a one-to-one environment quickly and efficiently.

Industry analysis reveals that 70 percent of downtime over 10 hours with any ISP is caused by telephone circuit failure. Since our NOC is in the same building as Frontier Global Center, circuit failure is virtually eliminated because there is no phone circuit between us and FGC. Instead, there is a direct connection between our Cisco 7200 router and theirs.

The second most common reason for downtime is circuit failure on the Tier 1 backbone. FGC, themselves a backbone, also have peer connections with other major Tier 1 providers, which allows traffic to be switched to other backbones quickly in the event of a crisis.