🔧 When Fibre Maintenance Happens, Your Business Shouldn’t Go Down – SD-WAN to the Rescue! 🚀

Ronald BartelsRonald Bartels
3 min read

If your business relies on fibre internet, you've probably received those dreaded network maintenance notifications from your provider. They usually read something like this:

"Dear Customer, scheduled maintenance will take place on [DATE] from [TIME] to [TIME]. You may experience brief service interruptions."

And if you've experienced one of these "brief interruptions," you know they can sometimes be anything but brief. 😬


💡 Why Do Fibre Network Operators Perform Maintenance?

Fibre networks are complex infrastructures that require regular maintenance to ensure long-term reliability and performance. Some common reasons include:

🔹 Upgrades – Increasing capacity to handle more traffic.
🔹 Repairs – Fixing fibre strands that may have deteriorated or been damaged.
🔹 Route Changes – Reconfiguring network paths to optimise performance.
🔹 Splicing & Testing – Ensuring fibre integrity after modifications.

These activities typically involve:
⚠️ Temporary fibre disconnections while work is being done.
⚠️ Flapping (intermittent up/down behaviour) as testing occurs.


📉 The Impact on Your Business

When your fibre link goes down for maintenance, your business could experience:

🚫 Lost Internet Access – No connectivity means no work gets done.
📉 Disrupted VoIP & Video Calls – Meetings drop, and voice quality suffers.
🛑 Failed Transactions & Services – Payment processing and cloud-based apps may fail.

Even "flapping" links (where the connection drops for short periods) can be just as bad, causing:
🔄 Packet Loss & Latency Spikes – Applications slow down or fail.
🔄 VPN Disconnects – Employees and remote users lose access.
🔄 Frustration & Productivity Loss – Employees can’t work efficiently.

If you're running a business that depends on reliable connectivity, you can’t afford to have your internet drop out just because your ISP is doing maintenance.


🚀 The SD-WAN Solution: Keeping You Online During Fibre Maintenance

This is where SD-WAN, like Fusion’s solution, saves the day. Instead of relying on a single fibre connection, SD-WAN:

Automatically detects when the primary link is down or flapping and seamlessly switches to a secondary path.
Uses multiple connections (e.g., fibre + LTE, 5G, or a secondary ISP) for instant failover.
Prevents VoIP & VPN disconnects by intelligently steering traffic over the best available link.
Keeps your cloud services and critical apps running even if one network path fails.


💪 Why Fusion’s SD-WAN is the Best Defence Against Fibre Outages

🔹 Multi-Path Resiliency – Bonds multiple links to ensure continuous connectivity.
🔹 Intelligent Traffic Steering – Prioritises business-critical apps to keep services running smoothly.
🔹 Real-Time Link Monitoring – Detects maintenance-induced flapping and switches before users even notice.
🔹 No User Disruptions – Your business stays online, and employees can keep working.


🚀 Wrap | Maintenance is Inevitable, Downtime is Not!

Network maintenance is a fact of life for fibre providers. Your internet will go down at some point—unless you have SD-WAN to keep your business connected.

If your business depends on uninterrupted connectivity, don’t wait until the next scheduled maintenance to realise you need redundancy. Get Fusion’s SD-WAN and ensure that no matter what your fibre provider does, your business stays online. 🔥💡

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Written by

Ronald Bartels
Ronald Bartels

Driving SD-WAN Adoption in South Africa