24/7 Support

Plain and simple, when something goes wrong you should be able to pick up the phone and speak to a professional. And since the internet never closes, your ISP should offer dedicated support options around the clock. Don’t become too infatuated with shiny presentations and statistics during the sales process. What matters most is who’s available when your network crashes. Get a detailed explanation of the support process before you sign your contract. Find out what would happen if your team loses email access on a Saturday evening. You can’t afford to wait until Monday to get something like this fixed.

Workstation Connectivity

One of the more confusing aspects with comparing internet plans is measuring data transfer rates. This is the speed at which files are uploaded and downloaded to your computer. It is easy to calculate data transfer rates for residential services because there are only one or two computers being used. On the business side though, you are going to have multiple workstations…sometimes even hundreds of them. Each one of your workstations should have a connection speed of 50 mbps for downloads, and 15 mbps for uploads. This will provide your employees with enough power to download sizeable files without losing valuable production time. Remember, this is per computer and not a measurement of your primary network connection.

Auxiliary Services

There are several additional internet-related services your ISP may provide for less than a standard retail provider. Cloud storage is a hot trend right now because it eliminates the need for you to maintain servers specifically for backup files. Some business ISP’s provide a complimentary amount of cloud storage, which you can then add to as your needs grow. Virus protection is another essential service that can be managed by internet providers. And finally, you might consider purchasing internet access through your existing IT company to avoid unnecessary barriers when trying to resolve major problems.

Experience and References

In the same manner that you look at a potential employee’s past success to predict their future, you should take the time to investigate an ISP’s performance with other businesses. Ask for a list of five current clients from your ISP that are of similar size to your company. Call the IT manager at these firms and ask them what they see as the pros and cons of the provider. Searching online for complaints and legal cases is another method, but keep in mind there will always be one angry customer who takes things too far.

Trials and Promotions

There has been exponential growth in the commercial internet market, which has helped to keep prices competitive. In fact, there is so much competition in new account acquisition that you should expect a free trial period or signup bonus in most cases. Some business owners will use free trials to run two ISP’s one month in order to get a hands-on comparison of their performance. No matter what you choose for your business, be sure to share the fact that you are shopping different suppliers, and ask if you qualify for any promotional discounts.

Like anything that is new, the latest models are expensive but those who want the newest and greatest will do whatever it takes to have the newest version. Some will pay full price to have it now, and others will search for a way to get a discount, so they don’t pay full price.

Cheap iPhone deals are found online and many shoppers will begin their search there. This is a much easier way to find a bargain compared to driving to various service providers to find out what deals they are offering. Today we can speak to not only each other but also text, send pictures, take and send videos and check our emails, all from that one little convenience we call the mobile phone.