A long time ago, when a business wanted to lease a T3 bandwidth connection it required getting a local listings book and search for a provider, and many times the provider was one of very few options. This meant you had to usually pay more, and that never even guaranteed reliable up-time for your bandwidth. It was a vital component to business, but very costly and sometimes loaded with headaches and loss of business.
Finally along came the Internet and allowed for T3 providers to branch out and get noticed on a national scale. This opportunity gave birth to additional bandwidth providers making the Internet shopping place a crowded space and somewhat confusing for business bandwidth shoppers. Luckily bandwidth brokers saw a niche to fill and ultimately grew online to serve the needs of the shopping business IT community. The brokers allowed one source shopping for multiple T3 providers, giving the customer less headache.
It was some time after the Internet growth of T3 providers that real-time quotes popped up to further give convenience for online business shoppers and IT professionals looking to replace or expand their bandwidths. These real-time quotes, regardless of convenience, may not be all their cut out to be, or are they?
Okay, so it’s true you can browse T3 providers in an instant and usually get very accurate quotes. Even better, you can compare without having to call different bandwidth providers and deal with sales pressure, however, will you get the best negotiable rate, and even more important, will the provider be reliable?
You might, but you are possibly risking your business and more money if you end up with the wrong provider. Money can equate to lost sales, man hours for employees, and lost productivity. The decision to go with less than satisfactory service provider can easily be attributed to the attractive pricing options.
How would your business fair if your operations were to be halted for a day? How much would you loose in customer sales? How much would you loose in employee man hours? How much would you loose on Internet sales if your website is run from an in-house server? As you can see, not having a reliable connection can cause you a lot of harm.
The same problems that could plague you with a bad T3 purchase can affect you all the same with any other bandwidth leases including T1, OC1, OC3, OC12, OC48, OC96, OC192, and up. On a larger bandwidth scale, obviously, the repercussions are more severe.
While pricing is a very attractive option when shopping for T3 service, pay more attention to the track record of the provider than how much you can save. A broker’s job is to work in your best interests however be wary if they are pushing towards only one provider. Not in all cases, but some, a provider may offer what is a called a spiff which rewards agents who sell a quota of services solely from them. Not that this necessarily means you will fall victim of unreliable bandwidth services, but it can still happen.
Well your probably wondering how you can possibly get a good price if you need reliability as well. The obvious answer is to find yourself a good broker that can offer guidance and consult with you on the best provider options for your region. Finding the right broker for you may not be as easy as it sounds, but once you find one, you can be assured you will be taken care of.
Your broker should function much like an IT employee of your company and represent only the offers that will ultimately benefit your situation. If a broker starts trying to up sell you on bandwidth, this can be a bad warning sign.
When consulting with a broker, remember, unless under a contract that states so, you are not obligated to do business through that broker. Do not get intimidated into purchase decisions that you feel won’t wholly benefit your company. To further avoid dependency on one broker, obtain consulting from multiple agencies, this will help you better compare facts and opinions that will ultimately lead to your T3 lease.
One kind of broker that is rare but very beneficial when it comes to quality and pricing is a wholesaler. A wholesaler basically has purchased bandwidth already from multiple providers and has the power to negotiate at much lower rates while offering leading providers.
So how do you find the right T3 provider and the right price for your communications budget? Well right off the bat, you need to find a good broker first. No need to revert to the old days, brokers get you lower rates, more so than if you went directly to the provider and a good broker is knowledgeable of the industry standards as well as the high performers.
Another thing, because you consulted with a broker doesn´t mean you are obligated to purchase services through them. Unless you have signed some binding contract (unheard of) you are free to make your own decisions, including consulting with other brokerage firms. Actually, it´s highly advisable you do just that. By having more than one broker consult with you, you are able to gather information from other parties to better help you see which provider is probably the best for reliability and service.
(c) TopSavings.Net – Shop wholesale T3 broadband and OC3 bandwidth options for your business bandwidth needs. Also shop and compare business phone products such as toll free numbers and VoIP.
t3, ds3, t3 line, t3 internet, t3 service, t3 broadband, business bandwidth
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