Residential Vs Business Internet: Which Is Better?

If you own a large enterprise or a medium sized organization this is a no brainer but if you own a small business or even a start this can be quite an important question. Every dollar counts for a small organization so when service providers come knocking with fibre broadband plans that promise lighting fast connectivity at a fraction of the cost who wouldn’t be intrigued. But is this the right choice?

Residential vs Business Internet

The price of a business internet plan reflects the high level of benefits and features offered when compared to a residential plan. Residential internet promises high speed download speeds but have poor uploading speeds and these are often paired with service agreements that only promise their best effort. Business plans on the other hand have high upload speed and the service agreements are top notch.

Below are some of things to consider when picking between a residential and business internet solution.

Parity

Like I mentioned before most residential service providers and even some business providers offer cheap pricing by restricting the upload speeds and offering high download speeds. Download speed matters if you are web surfing or streaming a Netflix show but, in an office, if you are content creating and want high quality image delivered to the customer then the upload will matter. Upload also matters when you want back up your data.

Generally business internet solutions should offer download and upload speeds that are similar, this is known as parity.

Service Level Agreements

No matter what data network services you opt for there is generally an SLA between the provider and the client. Usually SLAs aren’t discussed thoroughly in residential packages and customers are often provided with standard service guidelines.

If you have a residential package and there is a problem, you could face some major down time because the providers will treat you at a standard level. Business connections usually have a dedicated employee on it depending on the SLA but either way you will get priority service. SLAs can vary between service providers.

Static IP

Business connections usually have a static IP address. Numbers are permanently assigned by the provider and if this isn’t the case you can add a static IP when initially setting up your connection. Static IP address are very important when it comes to hosting an email server or your company website. If your business requires a connection with another server this too ideally requires a static IP.

Residential connections on the other hand come with dynamic Ips. These are temporary and depends on the device you use. Your service provider will usually set this up using a DHCP(Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol).

Price

Cost is an important thing if you’re a small business owner but opting for the lowest cost always isn’t a good thing especially when it comes to a reliable internet connection.

Speed

A slow internet connection is one of the many nightmares in an office. Imagine the awkward silence waiting for a web page to load during an important meeting.

Business connections are much faster than(often 2 or 3 times) residential connections. This is a type of speed is definitely required because multiple employees will be using the connection simultaneously.

As you can see after comparing all the factors above, the cost of saving a couple of dollars can be detrimental in the long run. Even if you are small business owner a business internet plan is the best option for you. Just pick the lowest plan available if you really want to save some money but make sure your operations won’t be affected.

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