I think many business owners get confused when they have to purchase an Internet Service.  Below I highlight some of the different options available to owners as well as provide a breakdown explaining when one choice might trump another.  Like the picture for this post I think there are so  many things to consider when making this choice that many decision makers use the easy button and go with what’s right in front of them – or who’s right in front of them asking them to sign a contract.

It sounds simple, but the first thing you want to consider is what Internet providers can provide service in your area?  If you live in a remote part of your state the options might be somewhat limited.  Your phone (Qwest/AT&T/Verizon) or cable company (Comcast/Cox) would be the first option, but probably not the only option.  Some of the CLECs or Competitive Local Exchange Carriers (XO, Integra, Paetec, Telesphere) have taken up residence in certain communities and provide a very compelling offering.  For those of you more interested in what available at the high end feel free to skip a few paragraphs to get to the juicy monster pipe detail.

Next determine what type of connection you want or need.  If you’re a smaller business and only require service for yourself, or a handful of employees you are probably best off with a few phone lines and a highspeed connection or DSL from either the phone company of the cable provider.  Compare these options by reading this or this.  You should be able to keep your costs < $300/month for this type of solution.  Be aware that the first invoice from most of the carriers covers installation cost, and a bill for almost 2 months of service.  This catches many off guard.  Like utilities carriers always want to be ahead by one month.   Additional things you’ll want to consider is: 

* Do you want a tech install – some come with this, but not all (make sure you ask)

* Will you have to buy or rent the modem/router or is it included?

*  Do you want static IP addresses?  Most of the carriers will charge a bit more each month for these, but depending upon how you’re using the Internet one of these might make sense.  You’ll want to check with your carrier service resource to determine if this is needed.

 Let’s say that you have more than 4 to 40 employees that are always on the Internet and you need something a bit more robust.  At this point you might want to entertain a T-1 or business class service.  Many of the carriers offer Integrated or VoIP service.  Voice over IP or Internet Protocol has been around for quite some time, but it’s really just now hitting its stride.  These offer both voice and data service on the same T-1 facility.  One of the carriers can start you on this service, which includes 6-16 phone lines and a T-1 worth of Internet bandwidth for around $400/month.  The problem today is that a T-1 isn’t that much bandwidth anymore.  Many customers going with a integrated service will start with a 3.0 Mb service which is two T’s bonded together, or even a 4.5 Mb integrated service which is three T’s bonded together so that they can have an even more robust service.  Another carrier can now provide you a single monthly price for your phone equipment, Internet, local and long distance voice with installation.  In the old days you had to work with 3 different groups for this. 

Integrated services are considered by many in our industry as a more robust, business offering but let’s be honest not everyone has the budget to pay $500 – $1,000+/month for this.  Comcast might fit the bill for you – they currently offer large pipes (10-50 and now 100 Mb) to the Internet and can now support you with your business phone lines as well.  We’ve found this to be a great fit for many of our small business customers when they can qualify for the service.  With the economy the way it’s been some of our larger organizations have moved over to Comcast’s business offerings to cut costs.  There’s some downtime, but the reduction in cost has made it manageable.  Qualification is required for most of these offerings.  Get with your carrier agnostic agent to determine what your business qualifies for.

What if you are the IT manager or CIO for a company that has >60 employees (but not more than 800) at a number of offices and you’re looking for a more robust way to hit the web?  Maybe you currently have a 3.0 or 4.5 Mb bonded T-1 solution that isn’t able to handle your usage any longer.  It’s time for you to move to an Ethernet offering.  Are you establishing a centralized IT model where all offices can come back through your WAN and firewall to gain Internet access, or are you setting up each office with their own connection?  There are a number of different ways to make this work just determine where your bottlenecks are.  If you want to centralize and have a 50 Mb Ethernet connection at corporate but aren’t willing to implement an Ethernet WAN (with multi Mb connections) then in most cases the remote sites will be Internet bandwidth limited by their T-1 connectivity back to the HQ.  Keep in mind that the industry you’re in and the reliance you have on the web for your line of work are huge factors in determining what you really need.  I know a company with <10 employees that use a 30 Mb Qwest ELA pipe for their Internet access.  To them the Internet and their connectivity is their business.  Is your company centralized or do you have Internet connectivity at each individual site?

If you’re office is head quartered in one of the NFL cities then you definitely want to look at all the ethernet players.  XO Communications often can get their service to you quickly on copper for an outstanding price.  TW Telecom is one of the leaders in ethernet deployments and Qwest’s (soon to be CenturyLink) has their MOE (Metro Optical Ethernet) infrastructure humming along very nicely right now.  If you own the property you run your business and you don’t foresee moving anytime soon consider requesting Ethernet on fiber.  When your 10/100 or 1000 Mb port is installed on fiber, scalability is no longer an issue.  When you’re ready to ramp your offering from 10 Mb to 80 Mb or 300 Mb to 1.0 Gb there are no problems doing this.  The average time to ramp from one level to the other on fiber is about 3 weeks.  If you start with a 10 Mb delivered on copper, then 2 years from now require a 50 Mb service you might be waiting 3-4 months for a fiber based service to install.  Copper is limited by most of the carriers to about 30 Mb.

On Ethernet deployments keep in mind that all of the carriers will run their service to the curb outside your property.  In most of these deployments most of the customers do not include the costs to ready their address for this type of service into their budget.  You’ll want to check with your building management to determine if there are spare conduits running into the building that can be used for Ethernet.  If you’re on the 7th floor of a building how will you get the fiber or copper up to your phone closet and into your firewall.  These are all things that need to be figured during the discovery process. 

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10 years ago most businesses could get away with having just 1.5 Mb of bandwidth to the Internet.  Today that doesn’t touch the surface on what is needed, particularly if you’re utilizing your connection to access many of the applications now available.  As SaaS (Software as a Service) models continue to grow and more and more businesses reach outside of their LANS for dial tone, CRM, ERP, PLM, SCM, SRM type applications, the need for bigger and better bandwidth will always be needed.  I stuck dial tone in the list above because now more than ever more and more businesses are looking to get a hosted PBX – Telesphere is a company that seems to have a grasp on this technology.

With cloud computing software designers can design, build, and deliver services that allow clients to easily access their applications from virtually any location.  IBM seems to be positioned extremely well to assist many of the large software providers with implementing a SaaS strategy.  Today, increased demand for Internet access is directly driven by the need for business applications.

Most of the carriers will bond T-1′s to provide their customers 3.0 – 9.0 Mb of access, but most have realized that to be positioned for the future they have to provide ethernet grade Internet access.  Qwest has led the way in their 14 states providing ELA (Ethernet LAN Access) to the Internet over their QMOE (Qwest Metro Optical Ethernet) backbone.  TW Telecom, Integra, and XO offer great pricing on their EoC (Ethernet over Copper) offerings.  Be patient when you’re working to check availability and get quotes for this service as it can sometimes be a lengthy process.  As always, make sure that you’re working with a carrier agnostic agency so that you can get multiple pricing from one source.

Happy Surfing!