How much do you pay for your internet connection? Does it deliver the benefits you are looking for? Might it make sense to invest in a better service, even if it has higher monthly charges? You can get broadband for free, but that’s only the headline price to suck you in. However, even after the initial free period, the charges for a domestic connection are pretty low.
Can you really run a business on a domestic broadband deal? Well, there’s no law against it, but the terms and conditions apart, no domestic internet connection is ever going to give you the reliability and capacity that are crucial for any business.
Business Internet Price Comparison
Why do you have to pay more just for a business internet connection? You get more for your money. On a domestic deal, you share your fibre optic broadband with fifty other homes (Contention ratio of 50).
If each family has more than eight internet-connected devices that are always on, then each employee would be competing for bandwidth with four hundred other devices (50 x 8). Many of those competing tablets, phones and smart TVs will be streaming video, so your share of the available bandwidth is even lower.
Business Broadband
There are plenty of “business broadband” deals on offer at attractive monthly prices, as you can see in the screenshot below.
However, there are problems with all these deals. When you click through you are taken directly to the ISP’s website and good luck with finding any negatives there. You will not find the contention ratio, and finding the company’s “fair usage” conditions is made deliberately difficult.
These business plans may include a fixed IP address, faster email response times and a lower contention ratio, but they are not enough to run a modern business with ten or twelve computers, video conferencing and data storage in the Cloud.
You are still sharing your line with other businesses and homes, so your connection speed is at the mercy of other users’ usage patterns. You can expect your internet speed to drop to that of a sloth on a bad day when neighboring businesses are all online.
Leased Line Internet Connection
If you want genuine top-speed broadband that is never going to be affected by other users’ Netflix downloading habits, then you need your own line with a contention ratio of one. Having a leased line has many advantages over any other internet provision:
- Upload speed and download speed are the same (Symmetrical connection)
- Speeds up to 100 Gb/s (That’s 100,000 Mb/s)
- Extremely low latency (So zero “lag” in video conferencing)
- Constant monitoring (So any faults are fixed immediately and as a priority)
A leased line is designed to suit businesses that need an always-on internet connection that is in constant use. The typical leased line cost has fallen recently. Quotes are specific to company needs and location, so you need to contact a provider to get an accurate leased line quote.
Internet Charges vs Benefits
Are the charges worth it? Your internet access charges are an electricity bill: It is impossible to calculate an exact return on investment (ROI). However, your business needs an internet connection that is up to the job just as it needs a 24/7 electricity connection.
Your employees wouldn’t get much done if electricity was rationed: Neither would they get much done online if your broadband connection is sub-standard. With a top-class leased line connection, everyone will be able to go online at the same time, use video chat, upload complex documents, back up data, use cloud applications such as Office 365, and monitor social media comments, all without any noticeable slow-down or lag. Are those benefits worth it? This BitRebels article includes a few more points on benefits versus costs.
In Brief
You can get low-cost internet deals, including some that purport to be for businesses. In reality, these are not fit for purpose, and you don’t find out how bad they are until you are tied into an 18-month contract.
If your business needs an internet connection, it needs a fast one 24 /7/365. Anything less is a waste of money and time. You can compromise in many areas, but never on your broadband quality and reliability.
If you are interested in even more technology-related articles and information from us here at Bit Rebels, then we have a lot to choose from.
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