What do we want? Constant access to the world wide web, with no blackouts, no downtime, and instantaneous download speeds!
Yes, businesses rely heavily on the internet. Most people expect more out of their internet than their current plans can provide. Are you one of those people?
The best business internet speed may not be the one you’re on right now. You may have the wrong network type or even be paying for more speed than you need.
Learn the right type of coverage speed is and the perfect connection type is for your business below.
What Do You Need?
You know you need your employees to be able to fire up a computer and open any site on the world wide web. But do you know how quickly they need to do that?
The internet speed you need depends on the load you’ll put on the server. We’re not talking about speed as in how fast Mary can pull up her email, after starting up her computer.
We’re talking about download speed, which we call Mbps. Your internet providers have ranks of how fast/how much internet they’ll provide. The higher the Mbps, the higher the cost of your internet – but the faster it’ll be.
Internet speed gets slowed down if too many people are trying to access it at once. You need to decide what speed you need based on the kind of activity your business does and how many employees do so at one time.
Internet Speeds
Don’t know where to start? Here’s a guide, from fastest to slowest speeds.
500 MBps – 150 Mbps: The fastest internet you can get. When you pay the big bucks, you can have 100 or so employees on one server, experiencing perfect streaming or downloading speeds. If you need more than this, you may have to create a special order with the internet providers near me.
150 – 100 MBps: If you have double – not triple – digit employees, you can get away with 150 to 100 MBps. This will allow them to use websites, create them, upload and download data and the like. Streaming speeds won’t be quite as fast as the previous level, but you shouldn’t notice a huge difference.
100 – 75 MBps: If you have double-digit employees, under fifty or so, you’ll need around 100 or 75 MBps. This speed will enable everyone to get their work done, without waiting on time lags. If you’re closer to the fifty mark or your internet seems slow, you may need to grade up.
It’s impossible to say exactly how much your business needs, without knowing your specific demands.
50 – 75 MBps: We’re getting into the lower speeds now. This speed is best for someone with less than twenty employees. You’ll easily be able to transfer data and do cloud backups, along with daily activities.
25 – 50 MBps: If you have less than ten employees, you can get away with 25-50 MB per second. Any fewer than that and you’ll experience load lags reminiscent of dial-up internet.
15-25 MBps: Three or so employees can function on 15 MBps, but hopefully, they’re not all streaming something at the same time. You may see a little slower download speeds if you stay at 15, but it’ll still get the job done.
Again, it’s almost impossible to guess how much coverage and speed one business needs. One business of the same employee size may do more file transfers than another and need a higher speed.
Types of Connection
Once you know how much internet you need, aka – the speed, you need to figure out which type is right for you. Yes, dial-up internet still exists, even though it’s almost 2019.
Most likely you won’t choose that outdated type, but you could if you wanted to. Here’s a quick look at internet type guides.
Fiber Internet
If you live in the 50% of the US with access to fiber optic internet and you can afford it, spring for this fast connection. Fiber optic cables emit pulses of light through plastic or glass. It’s SUPER fast and actually, the internet was made to use.
Satellite
Remember when we all had satellite TV and it was the big thing? We all had those ugly satellite dishes on our houses and buildings. The ones on office buildings looked like flying saucers, they were so big.
Satellite internet was the same type of craze. Nowadays, it’s not the best option – but if you’re out in the boonies, sometimes it’s the only one you have.
Cable
Most likely you grew up on or use cable internet now. It came around when they were expanding access to the internet – since the cable lines were already in place.
Cable internet is fine, it’s even fast! But it experiences blackouts and lags with the server. You’re much more likely to get a lag with too many people on a cable internet server, than on a fiber optic one.
You can also choose between DSL and dial-up connections, but we wouldn’t recommend it.
What Do the Best Business Internet Providers Offer?
If you’re buying space on a server and internet access from a company, you want them to offer you more than the world wide web.
The best business internet services should come with bundles, like VoIP or cable channels for your lobby. Some advanced and strictly b2b internet providers offer email hosting and cloud storage.
Ask the salesperson you speak to about their internet add-on options.
Have more questions about setting up a business office or providing your employees with services? We’ve got industry-specific tips on our blog.