Telnes is a company that has created quite a buzz lately. As you all know, I keep my ear to the ground and investigate any new vendor before I recommend them to a customer. I recently had some of my students at DePaul University dig into them for an extra credit project, and I was extremely impressed.
They originally piqued my interest when I heard about a new Ethernet Lite product they were bringing to market. Ethernet Lite is comparable to a cable modem. It is asynchronous meaning that it has a different download and upload speed just like a cable modem. But, if you read the small print on cable modems you will notice it says “up to.” Nothing on a cable modem is guaranteed. However, Ethernet Lite comes with an SLA (service level agreement) guaranteeing upload and download speeds. It is slightly more expensive than a traditional cable modem, but the piece of mind knowing you are actually getting what you paid for makes it an attractive business product.
A couple of months ago, I started a conversation with a sales representative and really liked what I heard. They are built more like a technical company rather than a sales organization. All of their technical people are Cisco certified and they promised excellent communication after the sale as well as fast install time frames. I thought to myself- “if all of this is true I want to do business with these guys”.
Along with the new Ethernet Lite product, they do T1, EoC, DS3, Traditional Ethernet, Cloud/Hosted PBX, and MPLS. Their pricing is extremely competitive, and they own a lot of their own network.
On April 23rd I sent them an order for five circuits of different types and sizes. The very next day on April 24th my customer received a very detailed letter stating exactly what would be happening over the next few weeks, including full schedule, when they needed to be available and when work would be done remotely as well as included information regarding how the process works, etc. Installations were set for the first week of May, and all the information the customer needed was listed on the email. It had the project manager’s name, number, and email. It showed the address where the equipment would be sent. I looked through it and discovered the most perfect pre-installation notification I have ever seen.
They literally got FOC dates in one day. They spelled out everything the customer needs to know. Someone who has never had anything to do with telecommunications could easily read the document and know exactly what was going to happen, when it was going to happen, and who to contact with any questions. The sheet also confirmed everything on the customer side. Who is the onsite contact? What is his/her contact info? Is the address correct? They stated that you should make sure you have access to the room where your voice and data lines come into the building. This is important because it double checks the information. They put it back on the customer to confirm everything a second time.
As of May 10th four of the five circuits have installed and are up and running. We ran into a loop problem on an EoC circuit, but they ran a new loop and it will be up in the next week. I have never seen installs go more quickly and more efficiently. The customer was so impressed he asked me to get him paperwork for two more circuits yesterday and Telnes provided me with the paperwork that same day. All I can say is they are a very impressive company…and I don’t say things like that very often.
