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A question about Business BB versus a home connection...

  • 26-05-2006 6:27pm
    #1
    nesf
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 27,645 ✭✭✭✭


    I've options atm. Will be getting keys for the new flat soon and will have to order broadband in but I'm curious about whether it'd be worth my while getting a business connection versus a standard home one? I work from home and the company will be paying for it regardless so there a few points that I'd like to know:

    a) Is there much of a cost difference between the two for equivilant products?

    b) Is there much of a service difference? In my experience a lot of companies have a nasty habit of treating their business customers better.

    c) Any providers have a good reputation for business BB? (am in Cork btw)

    d) Is there a difference in connection speed? Me not being on BB means a large phonebill for my company which is not good and we wish to avoid that if possible.

    Basically it'd make my life a lot easier if business bb was the better option (VAT invoicing etc), but I don't want to be throwing money away either. Are the products focused on offices (like BT's €10 BB if you do 200 in calls or something)? While there would be a fair amount of phone/fax use there isn't a huge amount. Would I end up paying a lot more for business BB without getting any of the real benifits?

    Cheers.


Comments

  • #2
    watty
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 32,417 ✭✭✭✭watty


    You pay for bandwidth & cap. So called "business packages" are simply faster speed and bigger cap.

    You can't pay for QOS (Quality Of Service) unless you buy fibre or a leased line. No-one offers any g'teed level of QOS. Most over-the-phone BB is resold Eircom Bitstream wholesale which they won't guarentee any particular availabiliy or quality.

    Many ISPs also even if they bypass the Eircom "local loop" monopoly are faced then with backhaul quality issues from ESB, Bord Gais, CIE/BT, radio links or even Eircom.

    So pay for as much CAP (dowload and also often + upload transfer per month or 30 day rolling period) and Download speed & upload speed as your needs require.

    If you are a normal user a 10G cap is lots. If you do P2P then 60G cap could be too small. Some ISPs hide the cap in a "fair use" clause so that you don't really know the cap till you hit it. If BB is cheap and no cap, then it is either so slow that a cap is irrelevent or there is a cap but they won't tell you what it is ("fair use clause").

    Any supplier should be able to give proper VAT invoices.

    Broadband is always on & fixed price so if it is fast enough (over 400k in reality for normal use) the speed is not important.

    If you are installing Operating systems and downloading updates for a living then 3Mbits or 6Mbits is a better speed.

    Broadband does not affect your phone and fax cost at all unless you use VOIP / Skype instead of phone calls and email instead of Fax. Most of my international contacts switch to Skype after 1st phone call.

    Some operators on ADSL or Wireless BB offer a real phone connected via VOIP with free calls to people on the same provider.


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