We live in a digital world. Digitalisation, the Fourth Industrial Revolution, has changed the way we operate businesses, the way we learn, communicate and live our lives. Connectivity has evolved into a common utility that is as vital as water and electricity.
In today’s world, having a stable and reliable internet connection is non-negotiable.
But with so many appealing options on the market – fibre, wireless, ADSL, data – how do you even choose? It’s important to first understand the difference between the available internet connection types, so you can make an informed decision on which will work best for your needs – whether business or personal.
In many cases, when the prospect of deciding on an internet type is brought up, fibre is often top of mind. But this is not that surprising since fibre roll-out is literally everywhere these days. On your daily commute, you might have seen a group of contractors digging up roads, pavements or driveways. However, beyond the category of ‘fibre’, there is still the question of ‘which fibre package will best suit you?’
There are plenty of cost-effective Fibre To The Home (FTTH) packages on the market for residences and businesses. So, it may seem like a no-brainer to simply sign up for FTTH. But in reality, it would be better for a to rather opt for a more business-orientated option like an Enterprise Business Fibre package, due to the differences between the two. Other factors to consider are reliability, coverage, uptime guarantees, service delivery, capacity and price.
Enterprise Business Fibre vs FTTH
Some major benefits of having Enterprise Business Fibre circuit are that it comes with Service Level Agreement (SLA), better contention ratios, uptime availability as well as specific configurations that facilitate high-performance networks and the support.
One big misconception about FTTH is that it is uncontended – “because it’s fibre” – but shared fibre connections do not come with any Service Level Agreement and therefore, downtime and connection issues are dealt with on a “best effort” basis. While you might be able to spend less money on a FTTH service for your business, it might end up costing you more in lost revenue.
What about wireless?
It’s a myth that fibre is faster than wireless technologies. A rate-limited 10mbps fibre connection is no faster than a rate-limited 10mbps wireless service.
Reputable wireless service providers, who use enterprise equipment to deploy carrier-grade voice and data networks, can certainly compete with fibre. With proper network planning and deployment, these wireless solutions will ensure adequate capacities and reliability resulting in a stable network as well as guaranteed service delivery to the customer.
In fact, there are cases where wireless has the upper-hand over fibre.
Some types of wireless solutions may be more cost-effective than fibre. Fibre can sometimes come at a more premium price because of the infrastructure needed to be set it up.
There is also the issue of deployment time. Fibre deployment generally takes much longer because of planning, municipal approvals and civil work needed to lay the infrastructure.
Both our Business Wireless and Business Fibre internet options are scalable and are provided with service level agreements.
