During our recent “Making the Transition to MPLS” webinar, an attendee commented on how complicated comparing MPLS pricing across carriers can be. It’s a concern we’ve heard before, and we wanted to devote a few posts to the subject. We’ll start by explaining the basic parts of every MPLS quote.
MPLS Local Loops:
Local Loops are the connections between any location and the nearest providers Point of Presence (POP). Also commonly refereed to as the “last mile”, local loops costs generally depend upon distance. For locations within the US, your last mile provider is likely AT&T, Verizon or Qwest. These providers are collectively refereed to as Local Exchange Carriers (LECs). For a small percentage of locations, the last mile provider may be a smaller company like Embarq or Windstream. These Independent Local Exchange Carriers (ILECs) typically operate in smaller regional markets.