The words that no business wants to hear but likely will because at some point your internet WILL go down!
The fact is – your broadband can be affected by a number of factors, most of which your provider is unlikely to tell you…
Luckily, we will! And believe me we’ve heard it all…
…..The cleaner pulling out the microfilter whilst hoovering (YES that did happen to one of our customers – luckily we managed to work it out!)…..
…..A faulty router…..
…..A Big network outage due to bad weather…..
…..Builders behaving badly & cutting through the line…..
And everything in between!
The key point here is;
The risks are out of your supplier’s control and you are left picking up the pieces, the lost time, the revenue and maybe customer satisfaction.
They’re also exactly the same no matter who your supplier is.
So we want to open your eyes to the potential threats and help you protect yourself (as well as your business) from these ‘worst case’ scenarios.
You have to have a contingency plan in place because unfortunately, if your business relies on a single internet connection, at some point you will experience a problem.
And why is that?
Well, we’re sorry to say this but broadband as you know it was not intended to be available 100% of the time. The rate at which we have increased our needs for internet is way ahead of the curve of availability, resilience and speed.
But why have we chosen now to talk about this you may wonder…..?
The answer:
Many of our customers rely on the internet for key business tools i.e. POS, taking payments, CCTV, order processing or even providing customer WiFi – the list goes on!
So when it goes down, we feel the pain and frustration with you.
How can you protect yourself and your business….?
Firstly, you need to think about your internet connection in terms of layers. There are very few businesses who can justify the risk of only one source of connectivity. For those who can’t, regardless of how your current internet connection looks, there are back-up layers available to prevent the worst!
If you are operating from an ADSL or FTTC broadband connection, you may want to look at 1 or both of these 4G backup options:
(i) A 4G dongle simply plugs into any PC and will get you back online ASAP: Perfect to see you through a short term issue, when time is of the essence.
(ii) The more superior routers on the market now offer a 4G fallback feature. This requires no set up in the event of downtime – the equipment would simply switch to 4G mode as required.
If you have Direct Internet Access (such as a lease line) your bandwidth is uncontended which means the connection is dedicated to you only (i.e. there’s no sharing with other people) so the risks of connectivity issues are lower.
However, the chances are you chose this type of connection because fast and reliable internet is imperative to your business and the risk to your business, in the event of downtime, is greater.
Therefore it is still wise to have backup.
Our recommended backup options include;
A broadband Line such as our low-cost standard broadband is the perfect backup option. With pricing from just £14.99 per month, it’s a small price to pay for peace of mind. Our customer Nexus Fusion did just this to support the lease line they already had from another supplier.
To give your contingency plans even greater strength, we have some service add-ons which support all types of connections.
1.Router Care – This service will provide you with a FREE, next day delivery, replacement router in the event of a router fault or failure. Currently priced at £3.50 p/month for an ADSL connection or £5.50 p/month for a fibre connection.
2.Complete Care – This offers all of the benefits of our Router Care package, plus Special Faults Investigator Engineering included, faster response times from BT Openreach with Care Level 3 and Sonar – our 24/7 router monitoring service – for additional peace of mind.
If you want to protect yourself (and your business) we’re here to help. Our team are on hand to discuss any of the options in more detail and help establish the most appropriate according to your needs. Just get in touch and we’ll be happy to talk you through it.