
>Company X comes to believe that one of the best things it could do to
>achieve reliability
>on its circuits in Brazil is to reduce or eliminate its dependency on
>Telefonica
>for "last mile" support/provisioning.

Telefonica circuits are usually very reliable if goes on fiber from end to end; copper-based circuits from them perform poorly. But even on fiber, restore intervals after circuit/equipment failures are not good.


>   Are there any options available to
>such
>a Company?  If so, which might be best: microwave, satellite, cellular, etc?
>Which vendors
>might be investigated and considered for these services?

Last mile:
AT&T LA (www.netstream.com.br) (fiber)
Metrored (www.metrored.com.br) (fiber)
Diveo (www.diveo.net.br) (microwave radio)
Embratel (www.embratel.net.br) (has some fiber/radios, uses the 3 above otherwise)
Engeredes (www.engeredes.com.br) (fiber)
Pegaus (www.pegasus.net.br) (fiber)


>  Any difference
>between
>VPN and point to point circuits?

Not on a city or state scale... Telefonica is the incumbent carrier only on Sao Paulo state, in what cities/states do you need circuits ?

>  If you were goign to build a large scale
>web presence
>in Brazil...what's your top list of possible circuit providers? 

The one(s) the backbone(s) you get IP service from prefer. Getting a circuit from Telefonica to connect to Embratel IP backbone will probably give you a headache.

>Reliability
>is valued
>over cost. I guess to put the query in nanog mailing list terms.....who
>could I go
>with to ensure I'm a good BGP neighbor in Brazil?

On IP transit, you should try getting good connection to Embratel (AS 4230), directly from them or from someone who has. Although every other AS in Brazil is trying to change this, current scenario is they have 80% of brazilian web traffic; prices are high, they are a Worldcom company, probably the same song as in US. Also connecting to a peering point bypasses them (and some congested circuits) for going to a number of autonomous systems, so give a look at www.ansp.br/ptt.


>I know some may find the above humorous since if you insert Verizon,

Not yet represented here.

>BellSouth,

Owns cellular company(BCP), doesn't provide circuits (although they own a microwave radio network with very good coverage)

>etc in place of Telefonica...the hypothetical may not change much. :-) >No offense to the Bells...when I pick up the phone 99.999% of the time 
>I have dial tone--which I appreciate. :-) But it costs $$$...   

Lucky you, more than Telefonica can say about their own voice lines.



Rubens Kuhl Jr.

