One of our colo’s in San Diego was purchased by Zayo recently and I requested a new copper Ethernet xcon to be placed. After a few days I received a quote from my new rep quoting a MRC 3x what I’m currently paying for existing xcon’s as well as a hefty NRC as well. Anyone have any experience with this kind of thing? Anyone care to share what an average copper xcon, single floor, meet-me-room to cage, Ethernet from carrier circuit costs? (This xcon is approx 30 feet..)
Thanks!
James
Too much, whatever it is.
Depending on the location (x-conns carrier hotels are typically more
expensive) I'd expect to pay anywhere from $100-$200 per month for
copper.
-Matt
Wait till you ask for a disconnect. Then you get hit again for a hefty NRC
NRC? Do you mean ETC (early termination charge)?
This is a sore point with me in all telco contracts. They want a one- or two-year term, or even three, and in exchange give you a discount on the installation and a tiny MRC reduction. But if you cancel early, they demand full payment for all the remaining months! I realize that the contract is written this way, but why? It doesn’t seem fair at all, and as a service provider myself, I know this is actually a huge unearned windfall for the provider.
To make things worse, many providers subtly plant an “auto-renew” clause in their contracts. You miss canceling but the end of the contract date, and BOOM, you’re on the hook for another two years!
I’ve been burned by this more than once.
-mel
Everything is negotiable. NRC on a cross-connect is ridiculous. The cost to
run should be made up with the amount they're charging monthly. I wouldn't
pay more than $200/mo for copper.
Ian Mock
Or the services you can only cancel once a year, may not give early notice of cancellation, and if you miss the window, you're on the hook another year.
Any contract we do with our customers is always MCP - Minimum Contract Period with automatic month to month renewals at the end - unless we're buying the facility from another carrier, then we mirror their terms.
Colo providers try to set it up so that the terms for all your different services with them expire
There are a couple reasons.
You order service from me. It costs me $X to build out that service. I balance that against the value of your contract. If you cancel early then my numbers may not work or I may lose money on the deal, or.... if I had to borrow money to do your build, then my bank is going to be angry when the value I told them I was getting for the build doesn't come through.
Smaller providers may end up factoring your contract. If that contract doesn't pay what they said it would they're liable for the balance of the factoring deal.
I'm sure he means what he says. The cost to remove the cross connect when you're done with it.
NRC = non-recurring fee - the setup fee. They are charging setup fee and monthly fees to run a piece of ethernet. The xcon fee monthly is 25% of the price of the ethernet service we're getting from the telco....
James
In a previous life when I was on the other side of writing contracts and my boss demanded auto-renewals, I always told my customers to write me a cancellation letter when they signed the contract.
The amazing thing was how few actually did it.
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reminds me of the days when you were forced to colo gear in the phone
company's CO to get access to their cable plant and got gouged on power and
the interconnection between the CO and then you had to buy your upstream
connectivity from the ILEC a insane markup or for ptp to your closest pop
not only did you pay a fortune for the privilege but then you had to
wait 60-90 for the ILEC to "build" the circuit
Those days are alive and well. And of course, it hasn't improved any.
Ohh no NRC.
Reason = Somebody has to pull back the cables (aka cut the ends off)
You mean you're not supposed to let cables pile up indefinitely until they become an immovable tangled mass?
Sure, but that's just a cost of doing business. There's not a line-item for cleaning the bathroom.
Frankly, I don't know why there are trays full of hundreds of pairs instead of each cage having a patch panel and a 144 or some such trunk to another patch panel elsewhere. Seems like there's a lot of extra work being done.
Frankly, I don't know why there are trays full of hundreds of pairs instead of each cage having a patch panel and a 144 or some such trunk to another patch panel elsewhere. Seems like there's a lot of extra work being done.
I have seen this in one facility. They just run 24 strand or whatever to patch panel in each customer cage. Then patch are done to those at the meet me room. When you exceed capacity they add another 24 strand. Seems smart (depending on cable cost and average utilization of the strands I suppose.) And of course you can get multiple feeds / entrances from them.
-Ethan O'Toole
Perhaps so, but if it's not charged at the end it would just be built
into the MRC. Longer-term customers would end up paying substantially
more.
In some cases, it is more cost effective to install an entrance
facility as you describe, but it's much more expensive than running
individual x-conns as needed. Plus not everyone wants to go to the
same place. The cost of an EF would be passed-through, making it far
more expensive for the guy or gal who just needs a hand-full of
x-conns.
-Matt
Because it's a capital outlay up front, instead of a build-as-you-need-it with the capital investment spread over time.
Ran into the money bug-a-boo when building a rack room -- the boss just didn't like the up-front cost. "We will use cable trays and run wire when we need it.
Feh.
There's no cost if the customer is charged for it when they need it.