Business Internet Connections:Faster vs. More Reliable - Which is Better?
Should your business buy a faster Internet connection or go for one that is more reliable? When trying to evaluate your available options for an Internet connection, many businesses face the dilemna of whether they should go with a super-fast connection based on newer technology, or a slower connection based on "tried and true" technology. This article provides our observations and opinions of 12 years of testing and evaluating Internet connections for businesses.
Businesses need highly reliable Internet access.
But now there are many
different options to choose from when it comes to connecting your office to the
Internet. Do you need a "pure" Internet connection with as much speed as
possible? Or do you need a "managed" Internet connection where someone monitors
the integrity of your connection at all times?
These are not easy
decisions to make. Our experience is that for their first "real" Internet
connection, most businesses opt for the cheapest possible connection. This works
for awhile until something goes wrong, at which point the quality of the
technical support starts to become more important.
But a more
reliable Internet connection, or one that comes with a higher level of support,
often has a significantly higher monthly service charge than a faster or more heavily
advertised Internet connection. How do businesses justify spending more money on an
Internet connection with less bandwidth?
We
have been down this path many times with numerous ISPs. Our conclusion over 12
years of testing and evaluation is that the quality of support and the degree of
care applied to your account is overwhelmingly the most important factor when
selecting an ISP.
Perhaps the most succinct and memorable way to put
this is:
"You don't simply pay money for your Internet connection to
work, you pay money to have people who care and who will respond quickly when something
goes wrong."
Update: May, 2007
True Blade recently worked with a client in Manhattan to deploy Cogent Communications' fiber-optic based Internet service. The result has been outstanding speed and high reliability. Our experiences with this service plus Verizon's FiOS (below) reinforce to us that fiber-optic based Internet services are the most reliable choice we can recommend.
Update: January, 2006
Both of True Blade's principals are now using Verizon's FiOS Service at our residences. FiOS is a true fiber-optic based Internet access service with significantly increased bandwidth and reliability over other Internet access services. It is not yet being rolled out to businesses, but when it is we will likely encourage our clients to sign up.
