Small Businesses Not Satisifed With Managed Bandwidth Services
The results of a new survey, from Quocirca, suggest that small businesses in the United Kingdom are not very happy with their managed bandwidth services.
I work across the big pond in New York, but I can relate to these survey results. According to TMCnet, which recapped the survey outcomes:
“One in three small or medium sized businesses (SMBs) across the UK are experiencing connectivity and performance issues with their ISPs but only one in 10 would consider switching providers. This contrasts dramatically with the consumer market, where customers switch between providers far more frequently.”
You can find more survey result details on TMCnet. Ironically, I was experiencing bandwidth and ISP issues within a few hours of reading the TMCnet piece.
My two broadband service providers — Cablevision on Verizon — both left me a little nervous on June 25. Cablevision’s broadband systems blinked out for a few minutes mid-morning, and Verizon’s voice services are giving me a wonderful “hummmm” across my phone line.
I have voice and broadband service from both companies, in order to ensure I have redundancy in my office. So far, that redundancy hasn’t proven very effective.
Managed bandwidth services are mostly smoke and mirrors. Even with a rock-solid service level agreement, most ISP contract language is heavily favored in their direction. This aside, I think business managers need to have realistic expectations about their Internet connection:
1. It is mostly up and operational
2. Internal users can have a significant impact on performance
3. Unmanaged users will completely ruin any quality assurance goals
4. Redundant providers are a good idea, but managers should still expect glitches.
5. The only way you can ever be sure of what services you’re receiving is the examine things yourself. Taking the word of the provider or 3rd party is fraught with peril.
6. If you’re a responsible and accountable person, why would you give someone else the power to control your on-line business operations?