Meet your business’s need for internet speed—and a lot more

Fibre gets you the fastest internet speeds for your business, but internet for businesses should be about much more than just speed.

When you manage a business, the type of internet connection you have matters less than whether your internet meets the following criteria:

• Reliability: The internet speed you have is fast enough for your needs, and your connection rarely, if ever, goes down;
• Security: You have what you consider sufficient defense against viruses, malware attacks and other cybercrime;
• Support: If something goes wrong or you have a question about improving your service, your provider promptly, and helpfully, responds.

Unfortunately, internet for businesses has trouble meeting these three basic needs. That’s because too many so-called “business internet” services are not substantially different from residential ones—and if you’re comparing your business’s internet service to what you have at home, you may not be getting the reliability, security and support a business really needs—and the consequences can mean lost revenue and a damaged brand.

This is where the type of internet connection you have matters.

Fibre is about more than internet speed

When people think fibre internet, they think speed. That’s because fibre optic cabling transmits data via light for the fastest internet speeds available (currently 10 Gbps), and these speeds are symmetrical, meaning your download and upload speeds are the same. Why does this matter? It depends on what your business uses the internet for. If you need to build and support a large network spanning several locations, fibre matters. If you need to adjust to continuous data increases, fibre matters. If you rely heavily on AV-over-IP solutions, fibre matters. Basically, if you download and upload a lot of data a lot of the time, and you need to avoid network congestion as your business grows, fibre matters. (Learn how Alberta-based graphic communications company, Rileys, came out on top thanks in part to Rogers for Business and Rogers Dedicated Internet after the COVID-19 crisis posed its greatest threat in 70 years of doing business.)

But internet speed is only one benefit you can expect from a fibre internet service. Assuming you’re with a national provider, staying online is practically assured because of redundant network pathways that allow traffic to be rerouted whenever needed. There’s also inherent security if your connection is dedicated to your business alone. Still, additional measures should be available—and taken—particularly against distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks, which aim to overwhelm your network with illegitimate traffic, paralyzing your systems, and often distracting you from a more insidious attack. Finally, when you invest in fibre, you should expect the utmost support from your provider, 24/7.

With fibre, improving internet for businesses is just the beginning

Just as fibre is about more than internet speed, it’s also about more than the internet. If you have a fibre connection, you can deploy numerous other advantageous solutions. For instance, if you’re still using a Key System, PBX or PRI for your business’s voice solution, but you have fibre connectivity, it’s time to modernize your telephony. SIP Trunking is an IP-based voice solution that connects your business and the PSTN. It’s more cost-effective and easier to manage and provides a more reliable, quality experience for your customers.

Fibre connectivity also enables you to deploy a variety of private networking solutions, such as ethernet (a simple but effective way to build a WAN), MPLS (which helps ensure the performance of your critical applications by allowing you to prioritize certain types of data over others), and wavelength (which is ideal for point-to-point connections, reaching speeds up to 100 Gbps).

Fibre connectivity is crucial for 5G

5G is the fifth generation of wireless technology. It’s all about increasing wireless internet speed, network capacity, bandwidth and reliability, as well as achieving ultra low latency, making it a significant leap forward in overall wireless performance. How significant? Theoretically, with 5G, the time between sending a request to a network and the network responding to that request can be as short as one millisecond, which is 400 times faster than the blink of an eye. As such, 5G will bring the fastest internet speeds achievable via wired means to the wireless experience, and this has limitless applications and implications for businesses in terms of efficiencies and the adoption of cutting-edge solutions.

Rather than delivering all connectivity to a broad area via one cell tower, 5G uses small cellular antennae placed in spots like lamp posts, on the sides of buildings, and in large lobbies or public areas. These “small cell” networks, which use high-frequency signals, can deliver powerful performance to highly localized areas. What does this have to do with fibre? Everything. Wireless networks are essentially the offshoots of wired networks, so the performance of a wireless network depends on the quality of its wired core. For 5G to live up to its performance potential, fibre optic cabling—and a lot of it—is ideal. So, if your business has a fibre connection, it has a long-term competitive advantage over businesses that don’t.

A fibre connection is a connection for success

If your current internet service isn’t meeting the needs of your business, upgrading to a dedicated fibre connection is worth exploring. Not only will you achieve the fastest internet speeds, but your overall internet service will be vastly improved. You’ll open the door to a world of services and solutions that can transform your business’s current operations while preparing it for the future. In short, an investment in fibre connectivity is an investment in the long-term success of your business.

To learn about Rogers Dedicated Internet, speak to a Rogers representative today.