Business internet in Brno and Ostrava: dedicated lines with an SLA

Shared or dedicated line

An ordinary connection for homes and smaller companies is shared. Network capacity is divided among several users and the speed stated for a plan is an upper limit, not a commitment. For many offices that is enough. At peak times, however, the speed can vary and a fault is repaired in the normal queue.

A dedicated line is capacity reserved for your company alone. The agreed speed applies in both directions and all day, regardless of what other users nearby are doing. The parameters of the line are set out in the contract, together with the terms of service. A dedicated line pays off wherever an outage or a slowdown directly stops work.

What an SLA means

An SLA is a service level agreement. It states exactly what is guaranteed for the line and what happens if the guarantee is not met. It usually contains these parts:

• Response time. How soon after a fault is reported someone starts working on it.
• Repair time. By when the service must be running again.
• Guaranteed availability. What share of time in a given period the line must work. It is usually expressed as a percentage per month or per year.
• Penalties. A discount or other compensation if the guarantee is not met.
• Fault reporting and maintenance. Where and how faults are reported, whether also at night and at weekends, and when planned maintenance takes place.

The specific values differ by location, technology and what the company needs. That is why we do not publish them in advance and agree them for each line separately. When comparing offers, it pays to read the repair time and the penalties above all. A high availability percentage with no penalty at all carries less weight than it seems.

Symmetric speed and static IP addresses

A symmetric line has the same speed for downloading and uploading. Companies today mostly send data: backups to the cloud, video calls, shared documents or camera recordings. Slow upload therefore shows sooner than you might expect. Fibre handles symmetry well, and more about the technology is in Fibre internet: what it is and how it works.

A static public IP address does not change. It is useful for remote access to the office over a VPN, for your own server, a camera system, a phone system or for services that allow access only from a specific address. We provide it with a business line, and more addresses if needed.

Backup line and independent routes

Even good fibre can be cut, for example during construction work in the street. If a company cannot work without internet, a second line makes sense. A backup can be arranged in two ways:

• A second fibre route. The cable enters the building by a different path and connects at a different point of the network. It is important that the two routes do not share the same trench or the same cabinet. Otherwise one fault takes out both lines at once.
• Wireless backup. Fixed wireless or a mobile connection that takes over traffic when the fibre goes down. It does not depend on cables in the street and is usually easier to set up than a second route.

Switching between the lines can happen automatically if the router is prepared for it. When we check the address, we find out which backup options are possible at that location.

Who a business connection is for

• Offices and branches. Video calls, shared files, cloud applications and remote access for people outside the office.
• Online shops and companies that sell online. An outage means lost orders, so backup and fast repair are what count.
• Production and warehouses. Warehouse systems, scanners, cameras and links to head office. These are often larger sites where cabling across the premises is also needed.
• Surgeries and shops. Booking systems, card terminals and tills need a stable connection throughout opening hours.
• Companies using internet telephony and the cloud. VoIP calls are sensitive to an unstable line. Dedicated and symmetric capacity helps them.

How a line is set up

First we check the address and find out which networks and routes reach the building. Then we go through your requirements with you: speed, number of IP addresses, backup and service level. Next comes a proposed solution with parameters that will be stated in the contract. If fibre already reaches the building, it is mainly a matter of installation and configuration. If a new route is needed, owners' consents and construction work decide, so we give a date only after the check. During installation the technician connects the terminal device and checks that the line reaches the agreed parameters.

What to send us

So that we can propose a solution quickly, write in the form:

• the address of the premises, or several addresses if there are branches,
• how many people will use the connection,
• what speed you need, or what will run on the line (VoIP, cloud, backups, cameras),
• whether you need a static IP address and a backup line,
• from when you need the connection.

We check which technologies and routes are available at the building, get in touch and propose a solution. The check is free and non-binding. Information about connections in each city is on Internet in Brno and Internet in Ostrava.