What you buy and resell.
WHAT UPSTREAM CAPACITY IS
The connection between your network and the wider internet.
WHERE IT COMES FROM
Undersea cable landing operators National backbone providers Larger internet service providers Internet exchange points
WHAT TO ESTABLISH ABOUT ANY SUPPLIER
Capacity available Price per unit Contention or whether it is dedicated Service level commitments Redundancy How faults are reported and resolved
WHY CONTENTION MATTERS
Capacity sold as shared performs differently from dedicated capacity at the same headline figure.
WHAT TO ESTABLISH
Exactly what you are buying.
WHAT DEDICATED CAPACITY PROVIDES
Predictable performance.
WHAT IT COSTS
Substantially more per unit.
WHAT SERVICE LEVEL COMMITMENTS SHOULD SPECIFY
Availability Response and restoration times What compensation applies
WHY
Without them, outages have no remedy.
WHAT TO ESTABLISH ABOUT REDUNDANCY
Whether you have a second path, and whether it is genuinely independent.
WHY GENUINELY
Two circuits sharing the same physical route fail together.
WHAT TO VERIFY
The physical path, not just the contract.
WHAT PEERING AT AN EXCHANGE PROVIDES
Direct exchange of traffic with other networks, reducing transit cost and improving latency.
WHY IT MATTERS
Local traffic routed abroad and back is slower and more expensive.
WHAT TO ESTABLISH
Whether an exchange is accessible to you.
WHAT TO NEGOTIATE
Price, as volume grows.
WHAT TO TRACK
Cost per unit of capacity, and utilisation against what you pay for.
