Understanding Access Technologies
Dedicated fiber is the gold standard for business internet. A fiber circuit delivers symmetrical upload and download speeds over a physically dedicated strand of glass between your premises and the provider’s network. Because the bandwidth isn’t shared with other customers, performance is consistent regardless of time of day or neighborhood usage patterns. Fiber circuits are available in speeds from 10 Mbps to 10 Gbps and beyond, with service-level agreements that typically guarantee 99.99% uptime.
Cable internet, delivered over hybrid fiber-coaxial (HFC) networks, offers significantly higher download speeds than DSL at a lower cost than dedicated fiber. However, cable connections are asymmetric—upload speeds are a fraction of download—and bandwidth is shared among subscribers on the same node. For businesses that rely heavily on cloud applications, VoIP, or video conferencing, the upload constraints and potential for congestion during peak hours can be problematic.
Fixed wireless access (FWA) uses point-to-point or point-to-multipoint radio links to deliver broadband. Modern FWA providers operating in licensed spectrum can deliver symmetrical speeds up to 1 Gbps with latencies comparable to fiber. This technology shines in areas where fiber construction isn’t economically feasible or where lead times for wired circuits are unacceptable.
LTE and 5G-based business internet is the newest entrant. Carriers now offer dedicated LTE/5G routers with static IP addresses and business-grade SLAs. While throughput and latency can’t match dedicated fiber, cellular backup—or even primary service in underserved areas—has become a legitimate option. The key limitation is data caps: many business LTE plans throttle speeds after a usage threshold, which can be a problem for bandwidth-intensive operations.
Evaluating Circuits per Location
Every business location has a unique set of requirements driven by the number of users, the applications they rely on, and the location’s role in the organization’s operations. A headquarters with 200 employees running cloud ERP, VoIP, and video conferencing has fundamentally different needs than a five-person satellite office that primarily needs email and web access.
Start by cataloging the applications at each site and their bandwidth requirements. VoIP typically consumes 80–100 Kbps per concurrent call using the G.711 codec. Video conferencing can consume 2–4 Mbps per participant for HD quality. Cloud applications like Salesforce or Microsoft 365 require modest bandwidth per user but are sensitive to latency. Aggregate these requirements with a reasonable concurrency factor to arrive at your minimum bandwidth target.
Next, consider the criticality of each location. A distribution center that processes $50,000 in orders per hour justifies a dedicated fiber circuit with an aggressive SLA, while a field office with intermittent use might be well-served by a cable connection with an LTE failover. Map each location on a matrix of bandwidth need versus business criticality to guide your technology and spend decisions.
Don’t overlook the physical infrastructure. Confirm that the building has conduit for fiber entrance, that the demarc room has adequate power and space, and that the internal cabling supports the speeds you’re provisioning. Many deployments have been delayed by something as mundane as a landlord’s refusal to grant right-of-way for fiber construction.
Bandwidth Quick Reference
VoIP: ~100 Kbps/call | HD Video: 2–4 Mbps/user | Cloud Apps: 0.5–1 Mbps/user | File Sync: varies by volume. Always add 20% headroom.
Designing for Failover
No single circuit is immune to failure. Construction crews cut fiber, cable nodes experience congestion, and wireless links degrade in severe weather. For any location where downtime translates directly to lost revenue or compromised safety, designing a failover strategy is essential.
The most common approach is dual-WAN with automatic failover. This involves provisioning a primary circuit (typically fiber) and a secondary circuit on a diverse path (cable, fixed wireless, or LTE). A router or SD-WAN appliance monitors the health of both links and shifts traffic to the backup within seconds of detecting a primary failure.
Path diversity is the key principle. If both circuits enter the building through the same conduit or terminate at the same provider’s central office, a single backhoe or equipment failure takes out both. Insist on physically diverse entrance facilities and, ideally, circuits from different providers. This isn’t always possible in rural areas, but in urban environments it’s a reasonable expectation.
SD-WAN has transformed failover design by enabling intelligent traffic steering across multiple links in real time. Rather than treating the backup circuit as an idle standby, SD-WAN appliances can load-balance across all available paths, prioritize latency-sensitive traffic like voice and video on the best-performing link, and seamlessly reroute around degradations before users even notice a problem.
Understanding SLAs and Contract Terms
A service-level agreement is your contractual guarantee of performance. For business internet, the key SLA metrics are availability (expressed as a percentage of uptime per month), latency (round-trip time in milliseconds), jitter (variation in latency), and packet loss (percentage of packets dropped in transit).
A 99.9% uptime SLA allows for roughly 43 minutes of downtime per month. A 99.99% SLA brings that down to about 4 minutes. The difference may seem small, but in a 24/7 operation, 43 minutes of unplanned downtime can have significant financial and reputational consequences. Dedicated fiber circuits typically carry 99.99% or better SLAs, while cable and wireless services often stop at 99.9% or offer no formal SLA at all.
Pay close attention to how the provider measures and reports against the SLA. Some providers measure availability only at their network edge, excluding the last-mile connection to your premises. Others exclude scheduled maintenance windows from their calculations. Understand exactly what you’re being guaranteed and how to file a claim when the SLA is breached.
Contract terms also matter. Multi-year commitments unlock better pricing but reduce flexibility. Auto-renewal clauses can lock you in if you miss the cancellation window. Early termination fees can be substantial—often the remaining monthly charges for the full contract term. Negotiate these terms carefully, and consider whether month-to-month pricing on secondary circuits gives you more strategic flexibility than locking everything into a single long-term agreement.
