We all know that “Fiber is good for you”. Well now, thanks to the huge efforts and massive capital being invested by all the major telecom and cable companies (to replace their tired and expensive to maintain network assets), this isn’t just a reflection on your dietary intake! Fiber availability has absolutely exploded within the last 12 months and this presents a fantastic opportunity for small and medium businesses to improve the reliability and speed of their WANs (Wide Area Networks) and internet connections.
So as a business owner or decision-making executive what are the 3 reasons your business should be upgrading?
1) Fiber is finally making reliable big-bandwidth connectivity affordable
Even just 12 months ago, fiber was rarely affordable unless your office just happened to be in a Type A or B commercial building that had already been lit by a number of competing fiber providers. If this was not the case and your building wasn’t lit then likely you would be landed with a significant one-time upfront construction cost of $70,000 (or more) just for the provider to bring their fiber into your building.
Well the ILECs (AT&T, Verizon, Qwest etc..) have been beaten on so hard by the local Cable companies and their cheap big-bandwidth cable solutions that they have been forced to respond. With their expensive old and unreliable copper network assets being unable to deliver comparable connectivity speeds the ILECs have decided to fight back with fiber and are now waiving those expensive upfront construction fees.
Furthermore, ILECs, CLECs, ISPs and Cable companies have established Network Peering Relationships with one another so they can participate in this increasingly competitive marketplace nationwide. This means instead of their being only one horse in town there is now 20 or more competing providers able to provide you services, and in much the same way that Long Distance pricing cratered after deregulation, fiber pricing is doing the same today.
What is cheap? $600 for 100MB FastE, $2200 for 1000MB GigE. That’s cheap!!
2) Fiber circuit delivery allows easy bandwidth upgrades.
At a time when every business is relying more and more on cloud and web-based solutions, bandwidth is king, and businesses need to have a network solution in place which allows them to easily throttle up their bandwidth as their needs continue to grow. When this “need for speed” arises you may not have the 90 – 120 days lead time you need to get new services delivered, but with FastE fiber you can throttle up to a maximum of 100MB (up and down) without getting a new circuit delivered, and similarly with GigE fiber you can throttle up to a maximum of 1000MB (up and down) without getting a new circuit delivered.
Note: USA Voice & Data recommends any business ordering connectivity to go with a solution allowing them to at least double their contracted bandwidth without having to order a new circuit, so if you need more than 50MB today it is typically worthwhile going with a GigE fiber delivery.
3) Fiber is the most reliable and widely available low latency connection available
There are reasons that telecom carriers and ISPs use fiber at the core of their networks and those reasons are reliability and low latency. Those same reasons are why your business should be looking to order fiber connectivity from your providers and of course between your different office locations. Businesses rely so heavily on their voice, data and internet networks these days they simply cannot afford for those connections to go down.
If you have expiring telecom contracts, need a higher bandwidth or more reliable network connection, or perhaps just want to explore what fiber solutions are available to you, just give us a call at 312-604-3070 or email us at info@usavoicedata.com. We would be happy to help you look into fiber availability and pricing for your office.
