Business Internet, Bought the Way It Should Be: Providers Competing for You
Business internet is not one product. It is five or six different delivery methods with genuinely different economics, and the one that fits a single office is rarely the one that fits a warehouse or a trading floor. This hub explains the differences in plain terms and puts the carriers that serve your address in competition.
The basicsWhat Business Internet Actually Means
Business internet is a category, not a product. It covers everything from a cable connection that shares capacity with the neighbourhood to a dedicated fibre circuit that belongs to you alone and carries a contractual guarantee. The word that separates them is contention: how many other customers are using the same capacity you are paying for.
The second word that matters is symmetry. Consumer-style connections are built for downloading, so upload capacity is a fraction of download. That is invisible while your staff browse and stream, and painfully obvious the moment they start hosting video calls, pushing backups offsite, or running anything other people connect into. If your traffic goes out as much as it comes in, symmetry is not a luxury.
Everything else follows from those two ideas. A shared, asymmetric connection is inexpensive and fast to install. A dedicated, symmetric one costs more and can take weeks or months to build, and in exchange you get capacity nobody else touches and a service level agreement with money attached to it.
ComparisonComparing the Delivery Methods Honestly
No delivery method is best. Each is a different trade between price, install time and guarantee, and the right answer depends on what breaks when the circuit goes down.
| Method | Capacity is | Typical install | Best fit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dedicated fibre | Yours alone, symmetric, SLA-backed | Longest, construction may be required | Sites where an outage stops revenue |
| Business ethernet | Yours alone, symmetric, scalable in steps | Long where fibre is not already in the building | Multi-site networks and predictable growth |
| Business cable | Shared with the area, asymmetric | Short, often the same week | Offices where cost matters more than guarantee |
| Fixed wireless | Dedicated over the air, often symmetric | Short, needs line of sight | Buildings fibre has not reached, and backup |
| Business DSL | Shared, asymmetric, distance sensitive | Short | Small sites and low-bandwidth backup |
| Bonded or legacy T1 | Yours alone, symmetric, very low capacity | Short where the copper exists | Rural sites and equipment that needs the old interface |
Start With What Breaks, Not With Speed
Most buyers start by asking how many megabits they need. That is the least useful question, because a shared connection advertising a large number can perform worse under load than a smaller dedicated one. Start instead with what stops working when the circuit does, and how long you can afford for that to last.
If the answer is that people cannot browse for an hour, a shared connection is a rational choice and the money is better spent elsewhere. If the answer is that a warehouse stops shipping, a clinic cannot reach records, or a phone system drops mid-call, you are buying a guarantee rather than a speed, and only dedicated services sell one.
The second question is what happens on the way out. Upload capacity is where cheap connections disappoint, because backups, video calls, cloud file sync and anything hosted on site all push traffic outward. Count the people who will be on camera at once before you decide.
RedundancyOne Circuit Is a Single Point of Failure
Any site that genuinely cannot be offline needs two circuits, and they need to differ in a way that matters. Two fibre services that leave the building through the same conduit fail together when a contractor cuts it, however different the logos on the invoices are.
Real diversity means a different physical path, and ideally a different medium. A fibre primary with a fixed wireless or cellular backup fails independently, because a backhoe and a rainstorm are different problems. Ask any provider whether your second circuit shares an entrance, a riser or a serving office with the first, and get the answer before you sign, not after the outage.
Diversity is also what makes SD-WAN worth buying. Two links only help if something automatically moves traffic when the first one degrades, and degradation is more common than a clean failure.
ContractsWhat the SLA Is Actually Promising
A service level agreement is a refund policy, not a guarantee that the circuit stays up. It usually specifies an availability percentage, a repair-time target, and a credit you can claim when either is missed. The credit is normally a portion of a month's fee, which is rarely comparable to what the outage cost you.
Read three things. What counts as an outage, because degraded performance sometimes does not. Whether the clock starts when the circuit fails or when you report it, which is why monitoring matters. And whether you have to ask for the credit, since most agreements make it your job to notice and claim.
Shared services generally carry no meaningful SLA at all. That is not dishonest, it is the trade you accepted for the lower price. The mistake is assuming a business-branded shared service includes a guarantee it never claimed to.
How it worksHow the Business Internet Marketplace Works
This is an open marketplace rather than a reseller. You describe the requirement once and the providers that actually serve your address respond, which means comparing them on the same scope instead of chasing quotes one at a time.
- Tell us the addressServiceability is decided building by building, so the address matters more than the city.
- Providers respondThe carriers that can reach that address quote the same requirement, so the comparison is like for like.
- You compare and choosePrice, term, install time and SLA side by side. No obligation, and we are channel neutral.
What to Check Before You Sign
The quote is the easy part. These are the things that decide whether the service is what you thought you bought.
- Is the address on-net? If the provider already has fibre in the building, install is weeks. If not, it may involve construction and months.
- Who pays for construction? Build costs can be waived, amortised into the rate, or billed. Establish which before signing, in writing.
- Is the capacity dedicated? Ask directly whether the bandwidth is contended, and if so, at what ratio.
- What is the term, and what happens after it? Many agreements renew automatically. Ask what the notice period is on day one.
- How is the SLA claimed? Find out whether credits are automatic or must be requested, and what the repair-time target is.
- What is the escalation path? Get the number and the ticket process before you need them, not during an outage.
- Does it come with a static address? Anything hosted on site, and most VPN setups, need one.
- Who owns the router? Provider-managed equipment simplifies support but limits what you can configure.
Business internet, answered
What is the difference between business internet and home internet?
Business services differ in three ways that matter: they can be sold as dedicated rather than shared capacity, they can carry a service level agreement with credits attached, and they come with business support queues and static addressing. A business-branded shared connection has the support and the addressing but not the guarantee.
How much bandwidth does my office actually need?
Bandwidth follows what you run rather than headcount. Video calls, cloud file sync and offsite backup drive it hardest, and all three push traffic outward, so upload capacity usually runs out before download does. Count concurrent video users first.
Why does the same provider quote different prices at two of my sites?
Because serviceability is decided per building. If fibre already terminates in one address and the other needs a build, the cost of reaching the second is real and it shows up in the quote or in a construction charge.
What does symmetric mean and do I need it?
Symmetric means upload matches download. You need it when traffic leaves your building as much as it arrives: hosted services, large backups, frequent video meetings, or anything colleagues and customers connect into from outside.
Is fibre always the right answer?
No. Fibre is the right answer when uptime is worth paying for and the building can be reached in a workable timeframe. Where a build would take months and the site can tolerate a short outage, cable or fixed wireless delivers usable service far sooner and for less.
What is a reasonable install timeframe?
Shared services are often days. Dedicated services in a building that is already on-net are usually weeks. Dedicated services that require construction are months, and that estimate moves with permits and landlord access, neither of which the carrier fully controls.
Can I keep my current provider and add a second circuit?
Yes, and it is common. The value is in the second path rather than the second vendor, so confirm the new circuit does not share an entrance, riser or serving office with the existing one.
What is an on-net building?
One where the provider already has fibre terminated, so a new customer can be turned up without construction. On-net status is the single biggest factor in both price and install time.
Do I need a static IP address?
You do if anything at the site is reached from outside: a VPN endpoint, a phone system, a camera platform, a server. If everything is outbound only, dynamic addressing is usually fine.
What should I have ready to get an accurate quote?
The exact service address including suite, the number of people and what they run, whether you need a guarantee, whether you already have a circuit to keep as backup, and your current contract end date so timing can be planned.