Who are the top rated UK MPLS providers?

About this article.

We’ve written this article for companies looking to understand which MPLS providers are a fit vs their requirements.

While the use case for MPLS is reducing across Enterprise business, private technology remains a component of hybrid network architecture. The MPLS providers listed currently represent the best/top solutions to deliver wireless-only or fully managed WAN capability national and international requirements.

1. Masergy Global MPLS

The Masergy SLA (Service Level Agreement) supports less than 1ms jitter and 100% in-sequence data packet delivery with packet loss guarantees. Tools include Global on-demand network management for bandwidth and embedded real-time data analytics. QoS (Quality of Service) enabled Masergy circuits are ideal for Amazon AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform and IBM Bluemix cloud services.

Products: MPLS, SD WAN, Global SIP, Security.

What are the strengths of Masergy's MPLS?

• Excellent backbone, ideal for customers with metro area connectivity requirements.
• Good agile managed services.
• Over the top Internet SLA services.

What are the weaknesses of Masergy's MPLS?

• Often viewed as expensive, this perception is changing over time.
• Coverage outside of North America may not be good across regional areas in-country.

2. Expereo Global MPLS

The Expereo service is often offered as a high availability failover option for primary MPLS VPN due to their aggregation ability served by 3000+ Internet providers.

What are the strengths of Expereo's MPLS solution?

• Vast amount of carrier relationships, ideal for client research.
• Internet failover to MPLS is leveraged by many of their customers.
• Global NOC presence located in Amsterdam, Argentina, Singapore, Dubai and the US.

What are the weaknesses of Expereo's MPLS solution?

• Brand awareness is not vast compared to the typical carrier approach.
• They do not offer the full portfolio of service options, e.g. dark fiber.

3. Globalgig Global MPLS

Services sold include managed wireless routers with mobile SIMs across 4G and 5G (shortly), ideal for high availability. Globalgig are recognized for their ability to aggregate traffic across satellite, fixed, wireless, broadband and dedicated MPLS circuits. Managed SD WAN is also offered via Cradlepoint, Peplink and Cisco Viptela. Hosted Voice and SIP services are offered Globally. The ideal customer profile suggests 20+ locations in the retail, healthcare/clinics, finance/banking.

Products: 4G/5G, Internet, MPLS.

What are the strengths of Globalgig's SD WAN?

• Global aggregator of Internet services.
• Strong 4G/5G offering.

What are the weaknesses of Globalgig's SD WAN?

• Their marketing often confuses prospects with content suggesting Globalgig leads with cellular.

4. GTT Global MPLS

VPN service offerings are across the complete range of telecoms including Internet SD WAN, MPLS connectivity, Ethernet Point to Point & Multipoint, Managed WAN, Cloud Services and Voice. The latest service provider data points from Netify suggest 2,500 local access providers for diverse, secure Global access.

GTT are not only offering good coverage via their own backbone but operate as an aggregator for locations outside of their footprint.

Products: GTT MPLS, SD WAN, Data Center, Security, Cloud and Voice.

What are the strengths of GTT's MPLS?

• Global coverage across MPLS and Internet services.
• Good UK and European coverage together with global PoP locations across multiple continents.
• 700+ last mile provider relationships.
• Tier 1 IP backbone.

What are the weaknesses of GTT's MPLS?

• Grown by acquisition of MDNX, Easynet and Interoute which often results in problems vs organic growth.
• Typical large service provider issues, slow to react, high sales turnover.

5. COLT Global MPLS

In addition, COLT also offers significant capability surrounding VoIP services (also for Carrier sales), Contact Center and Unified Comms (UCAAS). Availability is across 28 countries with metro area networks within 49 major cities and direct fiber connections in 24,000 buildings worldwide. An interesting side point is their support which covers 16 languages globally.

Products: Colt Managed MPLS, Colt Ethernet, Colt SIP Trunking, Colt Internet, Colt SD WAN, Colt Cyber Security, Colt Cloud & Data Center.

What are the strengths of COLT MPLS?

• Cost effective connectivity, especially for Internet failover.
• City locations are often on-net for Colt.
• Strong carrier relationships.

What are the weaknesses of COLT MPLS?

• Regional locations outside of metro areas are not a good fit.

6. Lumen Global MPLS

Core products are across public Internet, MPLS, SD WAN, IP Voice, Optical, Contact Center and SIP with support for hosting, Cloud and business continuity. Century Link also offers IT consulting and professional services.

Lumen have strong leadership in the majority of global regions. The result is a local feel even though the company is North American in origin, Lumen have done a good job of creating regional identities.

Products: MPLS, Internet, SD WAN, Private circuits, Cloud and Voice.

What are the strengths of Lumen's MPLS?

• Good regional global presence across 500 markets.
• Excellent tier 1 backbone across MPLS and Internet.
• Strong integration with SD WAN.

What are the weaknesses of Lumen's MPLS?

• Process can often feel difficult and slow.
• Multiple systems and processes across products.

7. Cogent Global MPLS

The Cogent proposition remains one of the most cost-effective methods of delivering layer 3 DIA, VPLS (P2P and VPLS) with colocation. Their on-net metro services are SLAs within a 17 business day delivery guarantee. A further interesting key feature and differentiator is their on-net pricing which is recognized as the lowest across the market.

Products: MPLS, Internet, SD WAN, Data Center.

What are the strengths of Cogent's MPLS?

• 17 Business day SLA for on-net services.
• 20% of Cogent's business is International.
• Known for data centre coverage.

What are the weaknesses of Cogent's MPLS?

• Often an unknown quantity to IT teams, brand awareness is not high.
• Not so strong outside of Europe.

8. Verizon Global MPLS

Managed Hosting & Apps (SharePoint, SQL, Oracle), Hosted & Dedicated Exchange, Colocation and professional services across Security & network connectivity. The Verizon network is built on enterprise-class equipment from vendors including Cisco, HP, NetApp and EMC network elements.

Products: MPLS, Internet, Cloud, Security, Data Center, Private circuits.

What are the strengths of Verizon's MPLS?

• Strong global player with good metro area coverage.
• Typical choice for large Global Enterprise businesses.

What are the weaknesses of Verizon's MPLS?

• Mid-market SME businesses may find Verizon difficult to navigate in respect of sales process.
• Customers often state service management is necessary for large deployments.

9. Telstra Global MPLS

Telstra offers network connectivity spanning 250,000 miles with more the 2,000 PoPs in 200 countries and territories.

MPLS is further enhanced with various connectivity types to support applications including IPL (International Private Line), EPL (Ethernet Private Line), EVPN (Point to Point or Multipoint VLL) with Cloud (Colocation, Public Cloud Infrastructure) and SIP.

Products: MPLS, Internet, SD WAN, Private Circuit, Voice, Cloud, Data Center.

What are the strengths of the Telstra's MPLS solution?

• Most local countries supported.
• Global NOC coverage in Australia, Malaysia, Hong Kong and UK.
• Strong in AsiaPac.

What are the weaknesses of Telstra's MPLS solution?

• Not normally the first choice for UK and US businesses.

10. BT Business Global MPLS

BT Business and BT Global Services offer significant network reach both within the UK and in excess of 198 countries. With Managed MPLS connectivity solutions & services from their 24*7 Belfast NOC (Network Operation Centre), their core product revolves around Ethernet Point to Point Multipoint for Short Haul and Global VLL (Virtual Leased Line), MPLS, VPLS, SD WAN & Cloud Voice (hosted IPT SIP).

BT is leading their SD WAN proposition with fully managed Cisco Meraki and Viptela, both of which are available with MPLS or Internet connectivity. BT's latest Broadband offering is an ideal failover proposition due to their 4G Assure product feature which represents an ideal IPSec VPN diversity option. BT offer several professional service solution options surrounding security with policies via leading platforms including Check Point and Fortinet's Fortigate. Security is available if clients wish to self-manage or acquire fully managed services.

Is MPLS relevant in a cloud-first world?

The adoption of public based SaaS applications which reside in virtual instances across AWS, Azure and Google Cloud are driving the need for more flexible WAN services.

If we consider the typical user profile, they are no longer exclusively branch office based. The change in user behavior is moving the WAN edge from the branch office to anywhere the network is accessed across global Internet connectivity. In order to meet the demands of a cloud-first architecture, the use of SD WAN vendors with public based Broadband, 4G, 5G and Ethernet leased lines is required to deliver fast, resilient connectivity. The traditional static MPLS router does not meet the needs of todays Enterprise on an end to end basis.

Gartner, recognizing the WAN edge shift, created the SASE (Secure Access Service Edge) framework to outline the security components required over and above SD WAN features to deliver the required solution. Aside from cloud applications, business is also benefiting from the faster delivery of Internet services, the ability to leverage path selection and the migration to CNaC (Cloud Native Carrier) solutions where DIY, Co-Managed and Fully Managed are available across the same product.

With all of the above said, where the network demands connectivity between two or more locations with built in privacy, an SLA and end to end QoS (Quality of Service), Layer 3 MPLS or Layer 2 VPLS remains the obvious choice.

If the Enterprise does not require the SD WAN and SASE feature set, selecting traditional MPLS circuits to deliver connectivity makes total sense. It is also the case that certain SD WAN vendors support MPLS circuits alongside Internet with some deploying core networks built on MPLS between global PE router gateways.

Which MPLS features should your IT team understand before comparing service providers?

• Managed MPLS services - deciding on managed services is perhaps one of the most contentious areas when evaluating service providers. With MPLS, this means understanding how the provider is able to make adds, moves and changes together with their NOC capability and expertise. In many ways, these elements are often not tangible meaning the in contract experience is not typically known because there are limited areas to evaluate. One of the ways to take control is to overlay SD WAN which transforms the capability and experience.
• Backbone network reach - the majority of major service providers offer global capabilities by leveraging last mile in-country connections to their local PoP. The required clarity that surrounds MPLS PE (Provider Edge) reach which will help your team evaluate true global MPLS capability.
• Delivery and project management - assessing whether your prospective MPLS provider offers robust processes across delivery is critical to ensure your project is delivered on-time and with the correct configuration.
• SLA (Service Level Agreement) - Latency, jitter and uptime are all aspects of the typical MPLS SLA. Remember, most SLA agreements are commercial rather than technical and work on an average across the working month.
• Connectivity options - hybrid WAN services are required to deliver end to end solutions for most businesses.

MPLS providers - feature comparison table 1-5.

MPLS providers - feature comparison table 6 to 10

Is there a tool which compares MPLS providers?

Click here to use the Netify MPLS online assessment tool. Answer 10 questions to receive your own vendor shortlist.