Dedicated or shared internet: what does your business really need?

Two internet plans can advertise the same "300 Mbps" and deliver completely different experiences. The difference is usually in three words that don't fit on the banner: dedicated, symmetric and SLA. If your business depends on cloud applications, video calls, a phone system or servers that customers reach from outside, those words matter more than the headline speed.

Shared internet: "up to"

Residential and many small-business plans are shared. The provider sells more capacity than the network segment really has, assuming not everyone uses it at the same time. That is why these plans promise speeds "up to" a number. At busy hours, you get what is left.

Shared plans are also usually asymmetric: much more download than upload. That was fine when the internet was mostly for browsing. Today, video calls, cloud backups, file sharing and remote access all depend on upload.

Dedicated internet: what you pay for is yours

A dedicated link reserves the contracted bandwidth for you, end to end, 24 hours a day. It is normally symmetric — 200 Mbps down and 200 Mbps up — and comes with:

• A service level agreement (SLA) with availability and repair-time commitments.
• Static public IP addresses for servers, VPNs, phone systems and cameras.
• Proactive monitoring: the provider's network operations center sees a problem, often before you do.
• Predictable latency, which matters for voice, video and remote desktops.

How much bandwidth do you need?

A rough starting point for an office:

• Count simultaneous users, not employees. Allow around 3–5 Mbps per active user for everyday cloud work and video calls.
• Add what your servers, backups and cameras send out, especially if you back up to the cloud during working hours.
• Add headroom of 30 % or more so the link never runs at its limit.

Because dedicated links are symmetric, sizing is simpler: the same capacity works in both directions.

Fiber or wireless?

Fiber is the reference for capacity and stability and can scale to 1 Gbps and beyond. Fixed business wireless is a good, cost-effective option for small and medium offices where fiber isn't available yet or would take too long, as long as there is line of sight to a coverage point. Both should be monitored 24/7 and come with an SLA.

When a backup link is worth it

If an outage costs you sales, stops your operations or breaks a customer commitment, a second link from a different path — ideally a different technology, such as fiber plus wireless — pays for itself quickly. Combined with a firewall that fails over automatically, users barely notice when the main link goes down.

Quick checklist

1. Is the bandwidth dedicated and symmetric?
2. What does the SLA say about availability and repair time?
3. How many static IPs are included?
4. Who monitors the link, and at what hours?
5. Can the provider deliver a backup link over a different path?

Every link we sell is dedicated and symmetric, monitored by our NOC 24/7. You can see prices for fiber and business wireless in our live price builder; installation depends on a feasibility check at your address.