Understanding
UFB Fibre Service Level Agreements
Given the
vast majority of UFB fibre connectivity options that are available to NZ
consumers, it is only natural that you would want to look at your options from
a price perspective first and foremost, to make sure you are getting the best
value for money for your business.
However, in
using a cheaper connectivity option, the reality is in most cases you won’t be
as well supported in the back end compared to more premium fibre options,
especially in the event your connectivity was to be impacted by an unplanned
outage.
This is why
it is important for you and your IT provider to understand the service levels
of the connectivity you have, so you at least have a basic understanding of how
long you could be impacted in the event your internet connection was to go down
and make a plan to ensure your business operations can continue in a failover
state.
Ask yourself:
- If my
business internet went down, how much of an impact will that have on my
business operations? Can we continue to trade? - Can my
business survive several days without an office connection? - Do you
have a business continuity plan (assuming you don’t have back up connectivity
already) in the event your telecommunications are down?
It is
important to understand the service level agreement of the internet connection(s)
you have in place, and if you aren’t aware already, you should talk to your
internet provider to obtain a copy, so that when the
proverbial hits the fan, you know roughly when you can expect your UFB services
to be back up and running.
The service
level document will, or at least should, detail any other specific technical
information compared to other UFB classes too, that might be important
information for you and your IT support to consider when choosing the right
connectivity option for your business.
At DTS, the
majority of services we supply are business grade connections and come with a 6
hour service restoration target, which is similar to a lot of premium fibre
service levels.
Business grade connections also come with better support from the local fibre
companies, i.e. Chorus, Enable, etc. which helps us to provide you with the
best available support in your time of need.
But even
then, 6 hours is a long time to have no connectivity, and if you don’t have a backup
connection in place, this can have a severe impact on your business
productivity.
We always
recommend our clients have a backup connection (using a completely different
network to UFB) to compliment any fibre service we supply, as we understand the
impact that downtime can have on our client’s business operations.
