Businesses today have gone digital. This digital economy is evolving at a breakneck speed, propelled by an ability to collect, analyse and use enormous amounts of machine readable information/data about practically everything. Our collective understanding of what constitutes a business has changed greatly with sales channels for goods and services shifting online.
Various businesses run their internal systems on internet connections and flexible data plans which includes shipping software, inventory management systems, phone systems, warehouse and more. Most businesses have already made the shift to cloud storage and digital data management systems, and the rest are speeding up the transition.
Businesses have come to realise that without a reliable internet connection they would continue to lag behind their competition. The big question, faced by these businesses is which internet plan is best suited for their requirements.
Identifying Your Requirements
There are a number of internet plans out there, however not all of them would be suited to your requirements. While there may be a selection of Digital Subscriber Line and Cable providers in cities and more populated locations. The scenario could be entirely different in rural and less populated areas. It is important to know what options are available in your vicinity.
It is important to have a clear idea how much data you would require. This can best be understood if you ask yourself the following questions:
• How much data would you and your team be uploading or downloading in a day?
• How many emails would be sent or received every day?
• How many video calls and meetings are you attending a day, and their duration?
• Would you need to be connected to the cloud for storing data?
Once you have answered these questions you would be close to understanding the data requirements you have. Usually, if your business is anything like most small businesses, you would depend on 24×7 internet connectivity like a lifeline.
This means your best bet would be to make sure you ask all the right questions up front to the prospective service provider. Here are some of the questions you should have an answer to before you sign up with someone:
- How quickly can you reach manual assistance when facing issues?
This one is particularly important, you do not need to be kept on hold for hours while you are losing precious business minutes. - What is the average yearly downtime of the internet service?
Most internet service providers have at least a certain amount of downtime every year. It is important to know what you are signing up for before you commit to something, especially if it is going to leave you without internet for longer than acceptable. - How quickly can local technicians reach your location when called?
It is important to have physical servicing of your hardline connections from time to time. In such a situation it is crucial to have a clear idea of how soon you can expect help. - How many subscribers are sharing the same connection?
The more subscribers your connection has the slower it can be. The slower the internet the more it will cost your business. - Is there any data cap, monthly or daily, that you should be aware of?
This one is insidiously dangerous. Some service providers cut off the internet once the data limit has been reached. There are others that keep it going, only slow down the overall internet speed. Slow internet or no internet, both are equally dangerous to a business’ survival. - Will there be any additional expenses?
There are many internet providers that offer the hardware and ancillary equipment at a certain cost. While the plan may seem high-value, if you fail to consider the one-time costs, it can turn out to be significantly expensive.
Once you have done your due diligence in terms of seeking out the right internet service provider, you would have become familiar with one term– Fibre Internet Solutions!
What Makes Fibre Internet so Popular?
If you truly need a business-grade internet solution, you need constant connectivity, uncompromising data speeds, effective security protocols, and specialized support when required. In a nutshell, you need everything that is offered by fibre internet.
If you find yourself wrapped in video conferences, in HD no less, through the day, you will need a reliable data plan. Do you need real-time access to cloud-hosted applications, with regular exchange of heavy files and large databases? If this is the case, your business-grade internet needs to be through fibre.
Here are some of the reasons why Fibre internet is so crucial to your requirements.
Reliability
Fibre optic cabling is far more robust as compared to other methods of transmitting data. Temperature fluctuations do not affect this form of cabling, nor does moisture, nor electromagnetic interference.
When internet cables run close to the power cables, the electricity passing through the copper wires produced EMI (electromagnetic interference). Fibre optic cables are made of thin wires made of glass to transmit light. This does not produce any EMI and is your best bet for uninterrupted internet.
Symmetrical Speeds
This is a phrase used to showcase equal upload and download times for an internet connection. If you are seeing heavy uploads while multitasking with calls, emails and streaming videos. This is not necessarily a hard and fast requirement for most companies, however, having symmetrical speeds does reduce the hassle of unpleasant surprises.
Security
Internet connected using business cable is the easiest to hack into. Most cyber-attacks on businesses occur due to cable tapping and other rudimentary methods. The cost associated with it is hardly anything to sneeze at, at $3.8 million the average cost of such a cyber-attack can be catastrophic for a company.
With fibre optic cable, the only option someone would have is to cut the fibre optic cable, which would cause the business to lose internet. Of course, fibre optic based business-grade internet isn’t the only way to keep your business safe from attacks, it is definitely one of the most effective.
Speed
Copper-wire based internet speeds do not even come close to the speeds that can be achieved by fibre based internet. This form of a business-grade internet can give you speed options ranging from 5 to 100 MBPS. It is undeniable that during high-demand hours, internet provided through copper wires often lags. Fibre optic based internet can help resolve that issue for you. Internet speeds, or lack thereof, can add up to be a massive hindrance to your business’ productivity, something that should never be the case.
High Bandwidth & Signal Strength
While this may not be truly unlimited, fibre optic based internet provides incredibly high bandwidths. Companies that regularly require SIP trunking, web conferencing, streaming HD videos, file sharing, cloud applications etc. would benefit the most through the high bandwidth on offer by fibre based internet.
Moreover, the signal from a fibre optic cable does not fade too much over distance as opposed to a copper wire based internet. Organizations spread over a large square footage can make the most of this facility and allow all their employees equal browsing, upload and download speeds. This form of a business grade internet solution also eliminates the latency issue faced by copper-based internet options.
Gigabit infrastructure has become important to Canada because the Internet has rapidly shifted and become a backbone society. Education, business and healthcare increasingly rely on internet services for more than just communication. Schools use education tools and cloud based communication tools online, since the recent pandemic has made it difficult to conduct physical classes.People run their entire businesses online and healthcare relies heavily on digital communication too. More and more, the services in our homes nowadays are run through internet connectivity, be it our appliances or our security systems.
Fibre is a purpose-built infrastructure for the internet. It recognizes our evolving usage of the internet services for a variety of purposes and gives us the flexibly, choice and freedom to continue to grow.
We at Wireless DNA, through our partnership with Rogers, offer you fibre internet solutions that would never give up on you and give you guaranteed symmetrical speed. Your business internet should be of business grade and meet all your requirements to grow your business. Reach out to us to learn more about how we can help you get the best fibre based business-grade internet connection.
