Advantages of Dedicated Internet Access

     Dedicated internet access (DIA) refers to internet circuits that are reserved or “dedicated” to one customer only.  The “local loop” of the circuit goes directly between the customer site and the Central Office (C.O.) of the telephone company.  It is like having your own “lane” on a highway.  Companies that choose Dedicated Internet Access usually do so for the following reasons:

• Better speed and reliability
• High-speed consistent uploads and downloads
• More than 20 employees at the site
• A need for quality video conferencing service
• Better Service levels and shorter/fewer outages

     Shared internet access is when multiple customers “share” the same assess path to the internet service provider (ISP).  It is like sharing the highway with all the other vehicles.  Cable broadband internet service is what is often described as a shared internet service because all customers share the same cable bandwidth or “highway”.  That is why often times during heavy traffic periods the cable service seems, and often times is slower.   Companies that choose shared internet services usually do so for some of these reasons:

• Quality bandwidth at a value price
• Smaller offices with 10 people or less
• Few or no “cloud” based services
• No need for VoIP or Video  in the office
• No applications sensitive to packet delay
• Non-critical business services that can withstand an occasional outage

Gauranteed Bandwidth

    Dedicated Internet Access circuits have better Service Level Agreements (SLA’s) from the ISP’s.  The bandwidth is guaranteed!  If you purchased a 10MB/s internet circuit then the speeds are guaranteed to be 10MB/s in both directions.  It is very helpful when planning for your office internet needs knowing the bandwidth is guaranteed.  If you do have an outage, the service level agreements (SLA’s) for DIA circuits have a shorter Mean Time To Repair (MTTR).  While, one cannot guarantee a shorter outage duration on average the outages are shorter.  There are a couple of technical reasons for this.  A dedicated internet access circuit has built-in monitoring and alarming that kicks in automatically if the circuit stops working.  Similar to when your “check engine” light goes on in your car.  These alarms and monitoring make it easier to identify the source of the problem.

     Shared internet access services do not have the same level of alarming that DIA circuits do.  Many times a ping test will be used to see if a circuit is active every few minutes. Then,  after a few unsuccessful ping tests, a circuit is assumed to be down and testing can begin.  Ethernet over Copper (EoC) circuit are dedicated internet circuits.  They use several copper pairs combined to aggregate the bandwidth.  As such, they are more likely to degrade due to one or two of the pairs failing. For that reason, many customers may notice that their internet service will seem slower before the circuit is completely out of service.  In addition, EoC circuits do not have the same level of proactive alarming on these circuits so the carriers don’t know they are out of service until you notify them or the ping tests fail.