All that glitters…
I have been in telecoms since 1984 and right now there has never been both so much choice and at the same time so much confusion around connectivity.
I went in to see a dealer’s customer last week who was running hosted Exchange and couldn’t understand why at certain times of the day it slowed to a crawl.
“It can’t be the network” he said, “I have an 80:20 fibre leased line and it only costs £50 a month”. “I think that may be an 80:20 broadband” the dealer replied.
An email advertising a 320Mb fibre leased line for around £300 per month arrived recently. This also looks like a bargain until you realise it is just four fibre broadband lines bonded together.
Comparing a dedicated leased line to broadband is like comparing your own driveway to the M6. Your driveway is 100% yours and even when you’re not using it you are not going to come home to find 10 other cars parked there.
80Mb sounds great, as does a four-lane motorway at 2am but in rush hour you might as well be on a B-road stuck behind a tractor.
Broadband is usually fine for web browsing and email but trying to run voice and critical business cloud applications over it will end in tears.
So here are some suggestions for questions to ask the next person that tries to ‘upgrade’ your connection to the Internet:
- Is this circuit uncontended? i.e. is it dedicated to me?
- Is it symmetrical? i.e. Can I send as much data over it as I can receive?
- Does it prioritise voice and other sensitive traffic?
- If it goes down will you guarantee to fix it the same day?
- Whilst it is down will you provide a backup service?
If you don’t get a ‘yes’ to each of these questions chances are you are not being offered a dedicated business leased line.
