Insights
Technical articles from the engineers who design and operate our network: how the systems work, and how to put them to use.
ISP & Network Operators
Backhaul for Altnets: What to Ask a Provider
What alternative network providers should ask a backhaul provider: handover locations, port speeds, capacity headroom, diversity, transit and addressing, and support.
Read →Choosing a Wholesale Broadband Supplier: An ISP's Checklist
What an ISP should compare when choosing a wholesale broadband supplier: access networks, handover, termination options, ordering, fault handling and addressing.
Read →Choosing a BNG: chassis, MikroTik or software
The broadband network gateway terminates every subscriber. Here is how chassis, MikroTik and software BNGs compare on cost, scale and operations.
Read →Commissioning an ISP handover
The acceptance tests to run on a new ISP handover before it carries customers, covering connectivity, authentication, addressing, accounting, throughput and failover.
Read →IP transit, peering and your own IP space
What transit and peering each do, why a network needs its own ASN and IP space, and how to take resilient upstream connectivity as a growing operator.
Read →Rolling out IPv6 to broadband customers
A readiness checklist for an ISP deploying IPv6 to subscribers, covering upstream, addressing, CPE, provisioning, monitoring and a staged pilot.
Read →CGNAT for a growing ISP: why and how to size it
Why a growing ISP runs short of IPv4, how carrier-grade NAT shares public addresses across subscribers, and how to size it without breaking applications.
Read →Planning a second ISP handover
What a second handover protects against, how to size each site for solo operation, and the failure domains a diverse second site should cover.
Read →How wholesale broadband works: L2TP and the LNS
How an ISP sells broadband without building access to every premises, using L2TP handover and its own LNS to authenticate and address subscribers.
Read →RPKI, ROAs and route filters for operators
A practical checklist for network operators on authorising route origins with ROAs, validating received routes, and avoiding the common mistakes.
Read →Wholesale broadband fault isolation
A decision tree for wholesale broadband faults, separating access, session, authentication, addressing and reachability, and the evidence to gather before escalating.
Read →When should an ISP upgrade its backhaul?
How busy-hour demand, subscriber growth, bursts and failure headroom decide when backhaul needs upgrading, with worked examples rather than a single rule.
Read →Connectivity & WAN
What is DIA? Dedicated Internet Access Explained
Dedicated internet access (DIA) is an uncontended, symmetrical leased line to the internet. How it differs from broadband, bearer vs committed rate, and what drives cost.
Read →What is SOGEA? Broadband Without a Phone Line
SOGEA is fibre-to-the-cabinet broadband sold without a phone line. What it stands for, how it differs from FTTC and FTTP, and what changes when a site moves to it.
Read →Before You Migrate from MPLS to SD-WAN: Questions to Ask
Planning an MPLS to SD-WAN migration? The questions to answer first, on privacy, performance, accountability, cost per site and resilience, before leaving a private WAN.
Read →MPLS vs SD-WAN: Why MPLS Is Still the Better WAN for Most
MPLS vs SD-WAN (SDWAN) compared on privacy, performance, accountability and cost, and why a private MPLS WAN remains the better choice for most multi-site organisations.
Read →What Is MPLS? MPLS Networks Explained
What MPLS is, how an MPLS network carries traffic with labels, what an MPLS VPN gives a business, and how MPLS compares with internet VPNs and SD-WAN.
Read →What Is SD-WAN (SDWAN), and What It Cannot Do
SD-WAN (or SDWAN) meaning explained: how software-defined WAN tunnels across internet links, what it does well, and the limits that make MPLS the better WAN for most.
Read →Ethernet First Mile (EFM) Explained
What Ethernet First Mile (EFM) is, how bonded copper delivers symmetrical business Ethernet, its limits as copper is retired, and the fibre options to consider instead.
Read →Sizing a multi-site WAN for cloud, backups and voice
Build a WAN demand model from concurrent applications, upload, backups and degraded operation, then check latency, loss and local congestion.
Read →Reading a connectivity SLA
Separate availability, response, restoration, exclusions and service credits, then compare each commitment with the disruption your business can tolerate.
Read →Ordering a leased line: surveys, wayleaves and build
Follow a UK leased-line order from availability and survey through permissions, construction and acceptance, with clear ownership of each dependency.
Read →Private WAN or internet VPN for multiple sites?
Why a routed private WAN gives multi-site organisations stronger control of routing, isolation and operational ownership than internet overlays.
Read →Two circuits, one point of failure
Two supplier names do not prove resilience. Trace ducts, building entries, access networks, equipment and power before calling circuits diverse.
Read →Ethernet leased line or business FTTP?
Compare business FTTP and Ethernet by upload, committed capacity, repair terms and installation, rather than headline download speed alone.
Read →IoT & Mobile Data
Choosing an IoT SIM Provider: What to Compare
What to compare when choosing an IoT SIM provider: network coverage and steering, who runs the core, addressing, private access, data pooling, APIs and support.
Read →L2TP, IPsec or Private APN: Bringing SIMs onto Your Network
Comparing three ways to bring a SIM fleet onto your own network: L2TP to your LNS, a private APN delivered over IPsec, and cloud or MPLS interconnect.
Read →How L2TP Data SIMs Work: Tunnels, Sessions and RADIUS
A technical guide to L2TP data SIMs: the LAC and LNS, L2TP tunnels and sessions, PPP, RADIUS authentication and addressing, MTU, resilience and encryption.
Read →Auditing an IoT estate for UK mobile-network retirement
Inventory modem, voice, roaming and access dependencies to plan an IoT migration around real equipment rather than a single deadline.
Read →Estimating IoT data usage
Calculate telemetry, protocol overhead, reconnects and occasional large transfers before choosing an IoT data allowance.
Read →Surveying cellular connectivity for fixed IoT
Build a commissioning record around the real device position, radio measurements and repeat application tests, not signal bars alone.
Read →Static IP, private IP or outbound access for IoT
Compare public addressing, private routed access and device-initiated sessions for remote maintenance and telemetry.
Read →Private APN explained: routing, isolation and its limits
Follow mobile traffic through a private APN and separate routing isolation from encryption, application identity and access control.
Read →How multi-network IoT SIMs choose a network
Understand network permissions, modem behaviour and registration before treating multi-network IoT access as automatic continuity.
Read →Voice & PSTN
Launching white-label business voice: an MSP checklist
Plan a white-label voice service around onboarding, number transfers, support ownership, customer records and a workable offboarding process.
Read →Business voice in a power or broadband outage
Map the power and connectivity dependencies of business voice, then test the complete calling path and agree emergency-calling arrangements.
Read →Why VoIP calls break up: loss, jitter and local congestion
Diagnose broken VoIP audio by tracing symptoms across endpoints, Wi-Fi, the LAN and the access circuit before buying more bandwidth.
Read →Porting UK business telephone numbers
Prepare business number transfers with an accurate inventory, account checks, coordinated suppliers and an acceptance plan for real calls.
Read →Hosted telephony or SIP trunks?
Compare hosted telephony with SIP trunks by looking at existing PBX investment, operating skills, equipment lifecycle and migration effort.
Read →The business PSTN-migration audit
Build a PSTN migration inventory that connects bills and telephone numbers to equipment, owners, replacement decisions and acceptance tests.
Read →Alarm Signalling
Proving alarm-path resilience
A commissioning and maintenance test plan for alarm signalling, with controlled path-loss, power-loss and restoration tests and what each one actually proves.
Read →Migrating alarm signalling off the PSTN
An acceptance plan for moving alarm signalling from analogue phone lines to IP, covering panel compatibility, power, network setup and witnessed delivery.
Read →Alarm path faults and polling, explained
How alarm message delivery differs from path supervision, why recurring short path faults matter, and how detection, escalation and restoration should work.
Read →From premises to ARC: the signalling chain
Mapping the full alarm transmission chain from communicator to alarm receiving centre, the responsibility boundaries, and the evidence of end-to-end delivery.
Read →What makes an alarm path independent?
Dual-path and multi-path alarm signalling only help if the paths are genuinely independent. Here are the shared dependencies that quietly undermine them.
Read →EN 50136 explained: grades and categories
Untangling alarm system grades, alarm transmission categories and the number of signalling paths, three things that are often confused when specifying signalling.
Read →Sector guides
Care-home connectivity migration
Separating telecare, staff voice and business systems when a care home moves off analogue lines, so each is migrated and tested on its own terms.
Read →Lift emergency comms after the PSTN
What building managers must verify when a lift emergency phone moves off an analogue line, from in-shaft coverage to backup power and witnessed call receipt.
Read →EV charging connectivity that stays up
Designing connectivity for EV chargers so outages, remote support and firmware updates become procurement questions rather than field visits.
Read →Keeping retail and hospitality sites online
Prioritising payments, ordering and voice during a site outage, and where responsibility sits between the network and the application suppliers.
Read →Connecting remote assets, safely
A connectivity architecture for remote renewable and utility assets that separates telemetry, maintenance and control-system access without exposing operational networks.
Read →Connectivity for multi-tenant buildings
Separating landlord operations from tenant services in a multi-tenant building, from access control and lifts to building management, with clear ownership.
Read →Discuss your requirement
Every article here comes from work we do for partners and their customers. Tell us about yours and we will advise.
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