WAN Connectivity Quandry

Thank you everyone for the responses so far. I imagine when ordering connectivity from a telco I'll most likely be ordering up Ethernet connectivity and configuring VPNs over it. I know ATM and Frame-Relay circuits are still readily available here in the US but I think they're cost prohibitive compared to regular Ethernet connectivity. Thank you all again, hope to see some more great responses soon.

Probably no use of my vote to you since I'm in Kuwait. But just to mention that about 90% of the work here is done through ADSL.

Probably no use of my vote to you since I'm in Kuwait. But just to mention that about 90% of the work here is done through ADSL.

I need opinions and votes, don't care where you are! The more diversified the responses are the better...

I imagine when ordering connectivity from a telco I'll most likely be ordering up Ethernet connectivity and configuring VPNs over it.

If it's MPLS based VPNs your Service Provider will take care of the VPN configuration for you. If it's a Layer 3 VPN you'll either configure static routes on your equipment or setup a routing protocol to talk with your Service Providers edge for each site. If you use Layer 2 VPNs you'll set up a IGP to talk directly to your other sites (or use static routing).

Of course, if you want to still use IPSec or whatever you'd need to do all that. Out of interest, you can't actually purchase a Frame Relay circuit in NZ from the main telco here anymore. You'd get a quote for a DSL / optical replacement. Same goes if you want to upgrade your bandwidth on a Frame circuit, you'd re-provisioned. You can still get ATM but it usually cheaper to go with ethernet.

[edit: changed IGP to routing-protocol for L3VPN because you can use BGP for the CE-PE connection]

I imagine when ordering connectivity from a telco I'll most likely be ordering up Ethernet connectivity and configuring VPNs over it.

If it's MPLS based VPNs your Service Provider will take care of the VPN configuration for you. If it's a Layer 3 VPN you'll either configure static routes on your equipment or setup a routing protocol to talk with your Service Providers edge for each site. If you use Layer 2 VPNs you'll set up a IGP to talk directly to your other sites (or use static routing).

Of course, if you want to still use IPSec or whatever you'd need to do all that. Out of interest, you can't actually purchase a Frame Relay circuit in NZ from the main telco here anymore. You'd get a quote for a DSL / optical replacement. Same goes if you want to upgrade your bandwidth on a Frame circuit, you'd re-provisioned. You can still get ATM but it usually cheaper to go with ethernet.

[edit: changed IGP to routing-protocol for L3VPN because you can use BGP for the CE-PE connection]

Thanks for the awesome response, nice to see this thread keep rolling.

I find it interesting to know the different technologies people use in different regions.
I'm in Kenya (East Africa), and like 80% of our population uses ADSL. The rest is a little bit of broadband and perhaps PPP. Frame relay, ATM is just for cisco exam purposes as far as i'm concerned. Good luck though!