Internet providers are a necessary part of having internet access, and choosing the right one is important for a wide variety of reasons. Whether you are a homeowner looking to change your provider or the owner of a new business that is setting up a multi-person office, you need to choose the right provider to get the best results.
But what actually separates a good internet provider from a bad one, and how can you decide what you would actually need from a provider? Rushing ahead to find the first provider you can afford is not always a good idea, so take your time and look at your options carefully.
Speed
The most important part of an internet provider for many people is the speed it can offer. Internet speed does not just affect page loading times but also how well the internet will work if multiple people are connected to it at once. This makes high speeds one of the most desirable things an ISP can offer.
However, the speed that you are advertised might not be the amount of speed that you will actually get. The more strain you are putting on your property’s internet, the slower your speeds will become, so it can sometimes be important to aim for more speed than you initially planned, just in case.
Higher speeds and bandwidth come with downsides, though – mainly the added cost of getting that kind of service, as well as the extra work of installing new fiber connections. The more speed you want, the more you will have to pay, which can require striking a balance between bandwidth and your budget.
Availability
Not all internet options are available everywhere. It is easy to assume that every part of the world could get a high-speed cable connection or even a fiber connection, but that simply is not the case in most situations.
For example, more rural areas may struggle to get faster internet options, and many homeowners have a very limited set of options to choose from. This can often mean that some of the best options for your needs do not even serve your local area.
Always look at the options available for your property before you start researching which providers are the best. There is no point spending an hour comparing two different ISPs only to find that one of them does not even operate in your area since that makes your comparison effectively pointless.
There can also be times when an ISP may be able to offer some of their services to your area, but not all of them. This can also change over time, meaning that it might take a year or two for higher-speed connections to roll out into your local area.
Cost
Naturally, cost plays a massive part in the provider that you choose. Ideally, you want to find a balance between speed and price, with a major focus on how much you are spending compared to whether or not the added speed is worth it.
However, it is not always that simple. More expensive connections do not always offer more speed, but they might provide other benefits or even have their own unique features that other ISPs can’t offer. You can’t use cost as the only measurement of how well an ISP’s offers will work for you.
Remember that you can usually get different levels of internet service from your internet providers, so you are not locked into only going for the most expensive option. Most will have quite a wide range of different options to choose from, usually cheaper options with lower speeds and more expensive options with higher speeds.
It is important to match the cost to your own budgetary limits, too. A sole trader operating out of their own home will not want to pay over $1000 each month for a fiber connection, just like how a larger company will struggle on a cheap $150 home connection that can barely support a third of their employees.
Reliability
The more reliable your connection is, the better. Having your internet suddenly cut out can interrupt a lot of important processes, from meetings to online payments from your bank account. More importantly, it can have a direct impact on businesses being able to work with their customers.
A business that suddenly loses internet connectivity can have its entire online support team removed from the internet, making it impossible to handle customer complaints. If you host your own website server from your own office, then expect your website to go down, too.
Unreliable internet connections can cause a lot of issues in both residential and commercial spaces or even industrial sites. While some issues may be unavoidable, such as cables getting damaged, you still want to have a good support system on standby to fix the connection and get your property’s internet working again.
Support
Good customer support and general communication make a huge difference when it comes to ISPs. If your internet cuts out or suddenly slows down, you want to know when and how it can be fixed. If you do not have an easy way to contact the ISP, then you might be sitting there with no idea of whether or not it is getting fixed yet.
Customer support also helps if you encounter general internet issues, such as your speed dropping or a certain site not loading properly on your new internet connection. In general, having an easy way to contact your ISP is important, especially for a business that operates mostly online.
Different companies and groups approach this differently. For example, sites like Baton Rouge Internet Provider have multiple customer contact methods, as well as a dedicated customer portal. This includes offline contact methods, ensuring that you can contact them if your internet completely dies.
This all comes down to what you need and how reliable you think your internet is going to be. Having more support options is never a bad thing, so looking deeper at each company’s customer support tools and methods can be an excellent way of judging how reliable they will be when a problem actually occurs.
