What is the difference between shared broadband and dedicated fiber?

Choosing an Internet service for your business can get complicated when you have to choose the type of connectivity - shared or dedicated. What type of applications do you use? Does your team download and upload large files frequently? These are questions to consider as you do the initial setup or look to upgrade. Below we will cover the basics and highlight advantages / disadvantages of both options.

Defining Shared Broadband and Dedicated Fiber

• Shared broadband is internet access that is shared with other businesses in the area. With shared broadband, if one business is a heavy user and takes up a lot of bandwidth, there is less bandwidth available to other businesses. This is typically a less expensive solution than dedicated fiber.
• Dedicated fiber, as the name implies, is a dedicated connection that is only used by the business using the service. So there is no sharing bandwidth with other businesses. Dedicated service is typically a more expensive solution than shared broadband, but offers a better quality of service and speed.

Pros and Cons of both types of connectivity

Shared broadband pros

• Lower costs - shared broadband users have lower month-to-month costs that are a good budget fit for businesses.
• “High” download speeds - shared broadband services advertise high download speeds.

Shared broadband cons

• Slow speeds - when businesses on a shared connection are consuming bandwidth, the other businesses have less. When this happens, the bandwidth is much slower.
• Low upload speeds - although shared broadband advertises high download speeds, the service typically includes much lower upload speeds. So depending on the bandwidth requirements of the business, this may not be a good solution.
• No guarantees - providers typically do not provide any performance guarantees on their service, so bandwidth performance can vary day-to-day.

Dedicated fiber pros

• Fast Symmetrical Speeds - dedicated fiber typically include identical upload/downloads speeds that can range up to 1Gb or more.
• Guaranteed bandwidth - providers guarantee performance with service level agreements (SLA), which provides a better solution for businesses that are reliant on the Internet.

Dedicated fiber cons

• Cost - the dedicated fiber solution is more expensive than shared broadband..
• Wait times for installation - dedicated fiber often requires 90~120 days to be installed after the initial order.

Connectivity with either shared broadband or dedicated fiber is the first step to setting up your business to access cloud apps, unified communications and more. Please contact us to help you find the right solution for your business.