Broadband Solutions: What’s Right for You?

Depending on your business, your Internet usage may vary. Whatever your needs, sufficient broadband service is important to maintain consistent and reliable service. If your business utilizes residential broadband to save money, you could be doing yourself a disservice. Business Internet solutions may cost more, but they offer a private connection for only your business to use. Here are some reasons why business Internet solutions may be a better option for you.

Bandwidth Speeds
With shared Internet service, bandwidth speeds are not guaranteed. Instead they are the maximum bandwidth speed your system is able to achieve. For example, if your Internet service provides “up to” 25Mbps, your internet speed may fluctuate, but will not surpass 25Mbps. To the same effect, the uploading and downloading speeds may differ. For example, you may get 25Mbps downloading, but only 5Mbps uploading.

With a dedicated private connection, your bandwidth is always available and bandwidth speeds are consistent for both uploads and downloads. This can be vital for you if your business utilizes a VoIP system, or transfers large amounts of data often.

Latency
Latency is the time it takes for data to get from one point to another. Lower latency means faster speeds. Latency is affected by things like travel distance, bandwidth congestion, and whether or not routers on the path are overloaded. The “last mile” refers to the distance from your computer to your ISP/Internet Service Provider, and is believed to be one of the most common causes of high latency. Congestion is increased with shared bandwidth, but with a dedicated private connection, congestion is decreased, thus decreasing latency and improving performance overall.

Class of Service (CoS)
Class of Service, or CoS, is the technologies provided by your ISP (Internet Service Provider) to prioritize voice and video packets over standard data packets. If your business employs VoIP systems or video conferencing, you will notice the enhanced audio and video quality. Because CoS is typically only available with dedicated private connections, it may benefit your business to make the switch.

Best Effort vs. Service Level Agreements
These agreements refer to what happens when Internet connection is down. With residential service providers, they offer “best effort” service. This means that your ISP has to provide its best effort to keep your service up and running. For service level agreements, which are included with most business Internet solutions, there is a 99.99% uptime guarantee, which equates to less than five minutes of downtime per month on average.

While your needs and preferences are dependent upon your business, there are obvious benefits to utilizing business Internet solutions. Have you been in this situation? What advantages or disadvantages have you experienced between residential and business internet solutions? Share your experiences with us on Facebook, Google+, Twitter, and Pinterest.

For your business phone systems and networking equipment needs, visit us online or give us a call at 1-800-564-8045.