In today’s digital age, access to the internet has become an essential need for individuals and communities worldwide. However, millions of people still need this vital connection. vBNG and CGNAT services are architected to help expand internet access.
Access to the internet isn’t evenly distributed globally, leading to a digital divide between those with internet connectivity and those without. This divide is particularly pronounced in developing countries, where infrastructure limitations and high costs hinder widespread access to broadband services.
The Role of Internet Service Providers
Internet service providers (ISPs) are crucial in expanding internet access. To be successful, ISPs must invest in infrastructure development and deliver affordable and reliable broadband services to reach underserved areas.
Vilcom Networks, a fast-growing ISP, is focused on bringing internet access to unserved and underserved areas in Kenya. They’ve consistently grown their business by offering affordable, reliable, high-speed internet connectivity to residences and businesses.
Vilcom began looking for a Broadband Network Gateway (BNG) to support its subscriber growth and provide affordable internet access. Turned off by the proprietary, expensive BNG solutions from large router manufacturers, Vilcom began evaluating netElastic’s software-based broadband network gateway (vBNG). With its flexibility and scalability, this solution allowed Vilcom to grow without committing all its resources upfront, making it a cost-effective and efficient choice for its expansion.
The Importance of Network Scalability in Expanding Internet Access
Network scalability has never been more critical, as people depend on the Internet for more aspects of their personal and business lives. This creates an opportunity and a challenge for broadband providers since traditional network infrastructure wasn’t designed to scale quickly or reliably to meet increasing demand.
Vilcom wanted a vBNG with greater scalability than traditional BNG solutions. Agnes Limo, CEO of Vilcom, said, “netElastic vBNG offered the flexibility and scalability necessary for our growth. Broadband is a capital-intensive industry, and with netElastic’s software-based approach, we don’t have to commit all our money upfront for licenses and other items we don’t need right now. We can add licenses as we grow. netElastic vBNG was a game changer.”
Signing Up New Internet Subscribers and the Impact of IPv4 Addresses
Countries worldwide are spending millions and billions of dollars to expand broadband access. Most of those funds will be used to put fiber in the ground. Deploying fiber may be the most significant expense, but it’s certainly not the only expense. Signing up new subscribers requires new IPv4 addresses, and they’re not cheap.
The average price of an IPv4 address today ranges from $35 – $50 per address. Let’s assume a broadband provider needs 1,000 IPv4 addresses at an average cost of $40. That’s a total cost of $40,000. If that same provider needs 5,000 IPv4 addresses, that’s $200,000. For 20,000 IPv4 addresses, the cost would be $800,000.
These are considerable costs for a service provider in a developing country that must provide affordable internet access for its residents. Carrier-Grade Network Address Translation (CGNAT) is another option.
The main goal of Network Address Translation (NAT) is to save public addresses. By sharing a public IP address among many private IP addresses, NAT limits the number of public IP addresses an organization uses, conserving its IPv4 addresses. Of course, this also reduces costs. Cost savings have also been the main driver behind the growth of CGNAT.
“We easily added CGNAT to netElastic’s vBNG,” said Rodgers Momanyi, Network Engineer at Vilcom. “When we started, we were limited in the number of customers we could sign up by our small pool of IPv4 addresses. netElastic CGNAT has enabled us to sign up thousands and thousands of subscribers without having to purchase IPv4 addresses continually.”
The Importance of Expanding Internet Access
Expanding internet access is not just about bridging the digital divide. It holds the potential to bring about significant economic, social, and educational transformations that can empower and uplift communities and individuals.
netElastic, in collaboration with broadband providers, is committed to expanding internet access globally with netElastic’s vBNG and CGNAT services. To delve deeper into how Vilcom democratizes internet access in Kenya, we invite you to read the Vilcom case study here.