In a world being dominated by broadband, there are still a lot reasons to love dedicated Internet access, especially if you’re a business.
What’s the difference, you ask? Simply explained:
- Broadband Internet is what’s commonly known as a “shared service.” Many subscribers share pooled Internet resources from their provider. The two most common types of broadband service available to both business and residential customers are Cable and DSL. Subscribers typically pay lower monthly rates for seemingly high Internet speeds. The speeds are not guaranteed and the download speed is going to be faster than the upload speed. (Read more about broadband.)
- Dedicated Internet access is exactly that – dedicated. The easiest way to invision it is to imagine a garden hose tethered from the business directly back to the provider.
Why Use Dedicated Internet Access?
Dedicated Internet access probably isn’t a fit for everyone. Residential customers simply looking to surf the web in the evenings and on weekends will do just fine with a broadband connection. Even small businesses with a few employees would likely be well served with Cable or DSL service. A lot of what goes into determining whether or not a business would be well served to use dedicated versus broadband Internet service is determined by how exactly their business uses the Internet.
For example, a larger company with many employees will typically use a dedicated connection. That’s not to say small business can’t or don’t use dedicated internet access. We’ve seen very small companies with one or two employees who have required large dedicated connections. These business were largely internet-based and served applications, image files, or large data files to their end users.
The main benefit of using dedicated Internet access is guaranteed speed and reliability. Unlike broadband, dedicated internet access comes with service level guarantees (typically 99.999% guaranteed uptime). If the provider fails to meet the guarantee, the customer would be entitled to whatever credits are outlined in the service level agreement.
Speed, in addition to service is also guaranteed. Whereas broadband advertises and provides faster download than upload sppeds, dedicated access provides the same speed in both directions. Upload speed is important for businesses serving data to users. Web and email servers are the two most common types of business servers utilizing upload speed as these servers “push” information to users. End users “pull” or download information from the web.
Types of Dedicated Internet Access:
There are a few different flavors of dedicated internet access, each differentiated by speed and distance. Below are the most common types of dedicated internet access:
- T1/DS1 – T1 is a copper based transmission service which can transmit data at speeds up to 1.5 megabits per second. T1’s may be bonded together to allow for higher data transmission rates. Two T1 circuits will combine to give the end user 3 megabits per second transmission rate.
- T3/DS3 – A T3 is a copper based service which can transmit data at speeds up to 45 megabits per second.
- Ethernet – Ethernet, sometimes referred to as Metro Ethernet, is a copper based service which can transmit data at a rate of 100 megabits per second.
- Fiber – Data transmitted via fiber optic lines use light and can travel at gigabit speed (1000 megabits per second).
For more information on dedicated internet access, or to learn which service is right for your company, click below to download out Business Internet Service Buyer’s Guide!
