Internet as We Once Knew It
Before merging with Charter Communications and Bright House Networks, Time Warner Cable led the pack of internet service providers in our primary service area (Racine, Mount Pleasant, Oak Creek, Milwaukee). For many years, it offered significantly more bandwidth, or high speed internet capacity, than its direct competitors.
Old Technology: A Familiar Coax Cable
Internet Provider Changes Hands (and Quality)
After Time Warner Cable was acquired, it became Spectrum and Spectrum Business, respectively, through Charter Communications®. The merger brought forth many changes:
- Pricing: Pricing for their coax internet services dropped exponentially.
- Speeds: Along with the pricing changes, their internet speeds offered also increased exponentially.
- SLA: This went away completely.
What is an SLA?
SLA stands for Service Level Agreement. It may seem like a fluffy, generic business contract, but it carries weight when applied to your internet connection.
Why an SLA Matters?
An internet connection SLA typically guarantees:
- Speeds
- Latency
- Support
You know how much your business relies on its internet connection. With the rapid adoption of cloud services (Office 365 for example), and VoIP phone systems, such as 3CX, businesses continue to increase their dependencies on their internet connections. These heavy dependencies dictate the need for an extremely reliable internet connection.
SLA Turns into ‘Best Effort’
Recently, Spectrum quietly eliminated the SLAs for their coax based internet services and changed over to Best Effort offering. When you hear ‘best effort’, you know best isn’t part of the deal. This means the conglomerate will no longer guarantee the speeds for which you pay. We’ve recently run into clients who are often only able to receive 30-50% of their internet plans’ advertised speeds. Reliability and latency also took a hit, causing major issues for our clients with VoIP phone systems.
VoIP Echoes this Half Effort
Even minor issues with an internet connection will cause major issues with VoIP (Voice over internet protocol) phone systems, such as 3CX. Packet loss and latency may not get noticed when using other internet functions, such as browsing and email. However, real-time applications, such as video calls and phone/audio calls, are significantly and adversely impacted. Common symptoms with VoIP/Audio include:
- Poor audio quality
- Missed words
- Echoes
- Audio delays between callers
- Dropped calls
- Missed calls
Fiber is Better
Fiber Optic Cables Carry Light, Rather Than Electrical Signals
Though Spectrum dropped SLAs on their coax internet connections, it began aggressively promoting their fiber optic based internet services. Fiber optic based connections use light transmitted over tiny glass strands, rather than electrical signals over copper wires. Because these transmissions are done via light, connections are much less vulnerable to interference and distance limitations. Additionally, fiber based connections have a tremendous amount of capacity.
Is Fiber For Me?
New technology typically comes with limitations. Right now, fiber based internet limitations are in its availability and cost. These limitations are heavily contingent on how close you are to Spectrum’s existing fiber network infrastructure. Unlike the coax network, fiber is still relatively new and being built out. These fiber build-out costs can be hefty. We’ve seen estimates up to $100,000. Fortunately, most build-out costs are much more inexpensive, and Spectrum is willing to subsidize costs for exchange of a multi-year service agreement. In some cases, construction costs exceed what they are willing to subsidize and will require upfront payment from the customer.
To Sum It All Up
Coax based internet services are very economical for companies who only need to send and receive emails or browse the internet. However, you remove SLA and business just got a little riskier. We especially urge any businesses who use a coax internet connection for VoIP to consider moving over to a fiber based internet connection ASAP. There is concern that the quality of service delivered by Spectrum coax is declining. Thus, it will cause significant and unavoidable call quality issues.
We Can Help
We coordinate, manage, and monitor the internet connections for many businesses as as part of our Managed IT Services. Typically, we consult with our clients and make recommendations based on real-time and historical usage data. From there, we leverage relationships with great account executives at Spectrum to ensure a smooth installation/transition.
Not a Managed IT Services client yet? Check out our guide: Are Managed IT Support and Services Right for You?>>