What do you need to know in order to ensure you make smart choices about your office broadband in the lead up to the NBN?
There are a few things to keep in mind if you're picking a fibre broadband provider, but one important one is how the capacity is allocated.
The ACCC recently penalised a company called CNT Corp Pty Ltd for making false claims about its fiber optic broadband capability. Even though CNT Corp has been hit with a $19,800 fine for "misrepresenting the speed of fibre-to-the-premises broadband services" it still means that their customers were caught having paid for services they didn't receive.
For businesses, the trouble is that fiber to the premises communications aren't a simple service. They are complex and highly technical and unless you're a communications engineer it's hard to know what questions to ask.
If the provider is offering 50Mbps speeds, what happens when your neighbours connect to the same service? Does the provider have enough backhaul capacity?
Backhaul is the higher-capacity fiber that is split between customers. For example, if the provider has a maximum backhaul capacity of 100Mbps and signs up ten customers and they all use the connection to its capacity at the same time, the most anyone can expect is 10Mbps even if they've paid for more.
