TL;DR: Business internet is not the same as home internet - and the difference matters when your whole business depends on connectivity to operate. This guide explains your options from NBN Business to dedicated fibre, what the contract terms mean, how to evaluate SLAs, and when you should be paying more for a better connection.
Why Business Internet Decisions Matter More Than Most Businesses Realise
Modern businesses are almost entirely dependent on internet connectivity to operate. Cloud applications, VoIP phone systems, file storage, email, video conferencing, payment processing, and remote access all require a reliable, adequately-sized internet connection. When that connection fails, the business stops.
Yet most businesses treat internet procurement as a commodity purchase - pick the cheapest plan from a familiar name and sign a two-year contract. This approach regularly results in connections that are too slow for the business’s actual usage, have no SLA, provide consumer-grade support, and have no failover capability.
The cost difference between a poorly-chosen business internet plan and the right one is typically $200–500 per month. The cost of even a single extended outage - staff unable to work, transactions failing, client commitments missed - is often multiples of that.
This guide gives you a framework for making the right decision.
Understanding Your Options
NBN Business (Broadband)
NBN Business plans use the same National Broadband Network infrastructure as residential plans, but with business-tier speed profiles, higher contention ratios (fewer users sharing the same infrastructure), and business-grade support.
Key characteristics:
- Speeds from NBN 100/20 up to NBN 1000/50 (Gigabit) depending on your location’s technology type
- Asymmetric speeds: download is much faster than upload (a limitation of the technology)
- No SLA for uptime - NBN provides best-effort availability
- Repair timeframes under most business plans: next business day or end-of-next business day depending on carrier
- Widely available - most business premises have NBN access
When NBN Business is appropriate:
- Small businesses with light cloud usage (email, basic file sharing)
- Businesses with 1–15 staff where brief outages are manageable
- Businesses with a secondary 4G/5G failover connection to cover outages
- Businesses with budget constraints that preclude dedicated fibre
When NBN Business is not appropriate:
- Businesses with VoIP phone systems handling significant call volumes
- Businesses where any outage directly prevents revenue-generating activity
- Businesses uploading large files regularly (NBN upload speeds are limited)
- Businesses with 20+ staff all dependent on cloud applications simultaneously
Dedicated Ethernet (Leased Line / Business Fibre)
Dedicated ethernet provides a private fibre circuit between your premises and the carrier’s network. Unlike NBN, the bandwidth is not shared with other customers - it is exclusively yours.
Key characteristics:
- Symmetric speeds: upload and download are the same (e.g., 100/100Mbps or 1000/1000Mbps)
- 99.9%+ uptime SLA with financial penalties for non-compliance
- Typically 4-hour repair SLA during business hours (some carriers offer 4-hour 24/7)
- Higher cost than NBN: typically $600–2,000+/month depending on speed and location
- Longer provisioning time: 60–90 business days to install
- Best available resilience and performance
When dedicated ethernet is appropriate:
- Businesses with 30+ staff all dependent on cloud applications
- Businesses with VoIP phone systems where call quality is business-critical
- Businesses where internet outages directly impact revenue (transactions, client-facing systems)
- Businesses with significant upload requirements (design agencies, video production, backup)
- Multi-site businesses requiring guaranteed inter-site connectivity
4G/5G Fixed Wireless
Business-grade 4G/5G connections use mobile network infrastructure to deliver fixed internet to a premises via an external antenna and a business-grade router.
Key characteristics:
- Available where mobile coverage exists - useful in areas with poor fixed infrastructure
- Variable performance depending on network load and location
- 5G where available delivers very high speeds (100–400Mbps practical download)
- No installation lead time compared to fixed services
- Best used as primary connection in remote areas or as failover for fixed services
- Monthly costs: typically $100–300/month for business plans
When 4G/5G is appropriate:
- Temporary premises or short-term tenancies
- As a failover connection alongside NBN or dedicated fibre
- Locations where NBN is not yet available or has very poor performance
- Emergency internet while primary service is being installed or repaired
SD-WAN (Software-Defined Wide Area Network)
SD-WAN technology allows businesses to intelligently combine multiple internet connections - for example, NBN plus 4G - into a single, resilient connection. Traffic is automatically routed over whichever path is performing best, providing high availability without the cost of dedicated fibre.
When SD-WAN is appropriate:
- Multi-site businesses wanting consistent connectivity across all sites
- Businesses wanting high availability without the cost of dedicated fibre
- Businesses with two or more existing internet connections that are currently unmanaged
Understanding Business Internet Contracts
What an SLA Actually Means
A Service Level Agreement (SLA) is a contractual commitment from your internet provider about the level of service they will deliver. For business internet, the most important SLA elements are:
Uptime SLA: The percentage of time the service will be available (e.g., 99.9% = approximately 8.7 hours downtime per year). Note that SLAs on NBN plans are typically not availability SLAs - they are “best endeavours” with repair time commitments. True availability SLAs are typically only available on dedicated ethernet.
Mean Time to Repair (MTTR): How long the provider commits to take to restore service after an outage. For NBN Business: typically “next business day.” For dedicated ethernet: typically 4–8 hours, sometimes 24/7.
Credits for non-compliance: A 99.9% SLA is meaningless if there is no remedy when it is breached. Confirm what credit or compensation applies when SLA targets are not met.
Questions to Ask Before Signing
“What is your repair time commitment if the service goes down at 2pm on a Monday?” This is different from “what is your SLA.” Get a specific answer for a specific scenario.
“What is the escalation process for an ongoing outage?” Who do you call if the first-level support cannot resolve the issue? What happens after four hours? What happens if it extends to the next business day?
“What are the contract exit terms if I need to move premises or close the business?” Early termination fees on 24 and 36-month business internet contracts can be significant - sometimes the remaining monthly charges for the full contract term.
“What static IP addresses are included, and what are the charges for additional IPs?” Businesses with VPN, hosted services, or email servers typically require at least one static IP address.
“What is the minimum bandwidth guarantee?” On contended services (including most NBN Business plans), the quoted speed is a maximum, not a minimum. What is the guaranteed minimum during peak hours?
Sizing Your Internet Connection
Calculating Your Bandwidth Requirements
A rough guide to bandwidth consumption per user:
| Activity | Bandwidth per user |
|---|---|
| General web browsing and email | 2–5 Mbps |
| Microsoft Teams/Zoom video call (HD) | 2–4 Mbps |
| Microsoft Teams/Zoom video call (1080p) | 5–8 Mbps |
| SharePoint/OneDrive file sync (active) | 10–25 Mbps |
| VoIP call (G.722 codec) | 0.1 Mbps |
| Streaming media (background) | 5–10 Mbps |
Practical sizing rule: Add up the expected peak concurrent bandwidth, multiply by 1.5 for headroom, then round up to the next available plan tier.
Example: 20 staff, all on Teams calls simultaneously, with active SharePoint sync.
- 20 × 4 Mbps (Teams) = 80 Mbps
- 20 × 15 Mbps (SharePoint sync) = 300 Mbps
- Total peak: 380 Mbps
- With 1.5× headroom: 570 Mbps
This business should be on NBN 1000 or dedicated 500/500 ethernet - not NBN 100.
Upload Speed Matters More Than Most Businesses Realise
NBN download speeds are commonly discussed; upload speeds rarely are. But for cloud-dependent businesses, upload speed is often the limiting factor:
- VoIP calls use upload as much as download
- Teams video calls use upload bandwidth
- OneDrive and SharePoint file uploads use upload bandwidth
- Cloud backup uses upload bandwidth
- Any client-facing hosted service uses upload bandwidth
NBN 100 delivers 100 Mbps download but only 20 Mbps upload. For a 20-person office all on Teams calls simultaneously, that 20 Mbps upload is already at capacity. Upgrade to NBN 250 (25 Mbps upload) or NBN 1000 (50 Mbps upload) - or consider dedicated fibre with symmetric speeds.
Failover: What Happens When the Internet Goes Down
For any business where internet outages directly impact revenue or productivity, a failover solution is not optional - it is basic risk management.
4G/5G Failover
The most common SMB failover solution: a business-grade 4G/5G router that automatically activates when the primary connection fails. Modern failover routers (Draytek, Cisco Meraki, Peplink) can detect primary connection failure and switch to mobile in under 60 seconds.
Cost: $50–150/month for a 4G/5G data SIM on a business plan, plus $300–800 for the failover router (one-time).
What it covers: Internet access for general browsing, cloud applications, and VoIP (subject to mobile network capacity). Does not match the performance of a primary NBN connection.
Dual-Connection with SD-WAN
A more robust approach: two independent fixed connections (e.g., NBN from Telstra + NBN or fibre from a different provider) managed by an SD-WAN router. Traffic runs across both connections simultaneously, and either can fail without interruption.
Cost: Two connection costs plus SD-WAN router and management - typically $800–1,500/month total.
What it covers: Near-seamless failover with no degradation in performance, as both connections are active simultaneously.
Making the Decision
The right internet solution depends on three factors: your business’s tolerance for downtime, your bandwidth requirements, and your budget. A simple decision framework:
NBN Business + 4G failover suits most businesses under 20 staff where occasional brief outages are manageable and costs are a primary consideration.
Dedicated fibre suits businesses of any size where internet outages have direct revenue impact, where upload speeds are critical, or where VoIP call quality is non-negotiable.
Dedicated fibre + 4G failover suits businesses where five-nines availability (99.999%) is required - professional services firms, healthcare practices, financial services.
If you would like help assessing your current internet connection and recommending the right solution for your business, get your instant IT price with CX IT Services. We can review your usage patterns, model your bandwidth requirements, and manage the procurement and installation process.
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