Broadband Is Around the Corner

The final two elements to consider in making your decision are usually the least well thought-out or investigated.

6. What is the Service Level Agreement or SLA?

Most broadband providers merely submit an agreement to the purchaser expecting no changes and for the fine print to go unread. Most buyers do not disappoint. It is very important to review any SLA presented by a service provider and to understand what your recourse is when things go wrong and your business suffers a disruption of service. The typical SLA offers an availability of 99.9 percent uptime for any given month or the inverse, 43 minutes of downtime per month. The good news is that broadband supplied by a reputable carrier seldom goes down but you and the carrier need to be prepared for the inevitable time when it does. In some cases you may be able to change the terms of the SLA to 99.99 percent, but it is more important to negotiate acceptable remedies than be concern over that last nine.

So, what will the carrier do if you experience a service interruption? Behind-the-scenes technicians and field personnel will work hastily to fix the problem to stay within the mean time to repair stated in the SLA. However, if the terms of the SLA kick in, your expectations of credits, reimbursements and other remedies should be agreed upon in advance. Do not expect a carrier to cover the revenue loss while the service was down. Most will not expose themselves to that level of risk. Consequently, in addition to monetary remedies, take the time to negotiate a right to terminate the service if the number and length of service interruptions exceed a given threshold. Your right to terminate should waive any early termination fees or de-installation costs.

7. How is the service provisioned?

There are two sides to getting your broadband activated. One is the physical side that you see, hardware, cabling and, perhaps, a field technician. The other is what you don’t see, the carrier’s back-end systems that actually assign and turn up the circuit. Both need to be “visible" to you. This can be most effectively accomplished via online portals that allow you to monitor each step of the provisioning process towards getting your requested broadband. Take the time to review the features and functions of the portal, access to customer service and online help (FAQs or email support). Finally, make certain what was installed is what was ordered. Broadband has become a critical component to most businesses. Even the sandwich shop on the corner views its broadband as important since it began accepting online orders and payment.

Follow these seven things and your experience in acquiring broadband will go well and you will have positioned your business to prosper. Once done, you will have purchased from a reputable carrier the appropriate amount of broadband at a reasonable cost with an expected level of quality and support. And that’s what we want.

David Byrd is vice president of marketing and sales for Broadvox , and is responsible for marketing and channel sales programs to SMBs, enterprises and carriers as well as defining the product offering. Prior to joining Broadvox, David was the vice president of Channels and Alliances for Eftia and Telcordia. As director of eBusiness Development with i2 Technologies, he developed major partnerships with many of the leaders in Internet eCommerce and supply chain management. As CEO of Planet Hollywood Online he was a pioneer in using early Internet technologies to build a branded entertainment and eCommerce website company partnered with Planet Hollywood. Having over 20 years of telecom sales and marketing experience, he has held executive positions with Hewlett-Packard, Sprint and Ericsson.