If you’ve ever wondered why business internet costs so much more than home internet, this is the article for you. It’s also for people who’ve ever wondered if they could get away with running their business on a home connection.
The cost difference between the two is certainly enough to raise eyebrows, so we thought we’d go looking for answers.
Why are business connections so expensive?
In short, because they’re better. When you choose a business connection, you’re getting a better service than you’d get if you had ordered a home connection.
And this is why.
Business connections generally offer the following:
- A Service Level Agreement that guarantees a certain level of service
- Faster support responses to connectivity problems and queries
- A fixed IP address
- A very stable connection that is less likely to go down
- Guaranteed line speeds and low latency
Home connections, meanwhile, are considered to be a “best-effort” service, meaning you’ll get what the ISP is able to provide with no guarantees. This is why home users don’t always see their connections performing at their best, it’s why they wait in long queues when engaging with support, and also why they pay much less.
Let’s expand a little on each of these business benefits.
Having an SLA
With an SLA in place, businesses are guaranteed of having minimal downtime every year, and in the case of a problem, fixing their issues will be prioritised over other users. In business, having no internet access impacts virtually all operations, meaning productivity is lost if there’s an outage. Companies with SLAs can rest easy that this will be kept to a minimum.
Faster Support
If you hate queues or frustrating automated WhatsApp help systems, you’ll be happy to know that business connections come with accelerated access to support. Those support teams are also trained to prioritise your issues and to provide fast, effective, and efficient support to you. It’s better than being a VIP at a club.
Fixed IP
Having a fixed IP address is important to businesses that need to provide remote access to their networks, who host their own servers, and who are interested in boosting the reliability of their communications.
A Stable Connection
Internet connections that ISPs allocate to businesses are more robust than home connections. Technicians will implement multiple redundancies to ensure that connectivity is not interrupted more than is necessary. Failovers using alternative connection types is a common strategy to keep businesses connected (switching to wireless internet when fibre fails, for example).
Performance Guarantees
As part of the SLA, businesses are guaranteed their internet will always perform at its peak, that bandwidth will always be available, and that latency to external services will be as low as possible. These are all important because businesses rely on the IT services they connect to for everything from their emails to file storage and backup, and these must all perform at their peak.
Higher prices
All of these business connectivity benefits cost money to provide because ISPs must spend more on their behind-the-scenes activities to deliver the level of services businesses rely on. This is why business internet costs so much more than home internet.
Will a home connection do in a pinch?
In short, yes. A business can run on a home connection, especially if they only need access to email, internet browsing, the ability to download large files, and the option to conduct virtual meetings.
Tangible Advantages
The message we’d like you to leave with is that there are definitely tangible advantages to paying for a business connection. Just evaluate your needs honestly, and if you need what’s on offer, pay the extra and get the peace of mind that comes from professional-grade internet. For everyone else, there’s using internet at home.
Image by Chaitawat Pawapoowadon from Pixabay