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Is it Time to Consider an Alternative ISP for your Business?

1st May 2019

Businesses often believe that by going to one of the larger broadband providers they are likely to receive better service and value for money. This is not always the case, and in fact, price should not always be the overriding decision making factor over aspects such as customer service, flexibility, choice, ease of doing business with and the overall premium network that alternative Internet Service Provider (ISP) could offer.

Alternative ISPs operate a model that can deliver many benefits to businesses of all sizes.

 

No More Rigid Processes

While larger broadband providers may have deeper pockets for marketing and introductory offers, they can be restricted to slow and rigid processes which could lead to customer dissatisfaction. Customer service and support teams may be operating from pre-defined scripts with little knowledge or understanding of the services or technology they are supporting. This could result in you waiting longer for customer service and repairs if things go wrong, with any issues escalated processed through different channels before they are addressed.

Alternative ISPs tend to be more fluid with a structure that has evolved around their customers. In particular, Giganet doesn’t operate from scripts, all our staff are trained to assist, and even for the most technical of questions, you can always speak to our Technical Director.

 

Wider Choice

With the larger providers, you are usually stuck with their network and their network only. This means that if you are outside of their network footprint, or their network is far away, you could end up paying more or receiving a slower service.  If you want resiliency, then you are usually disadvantaged without the carrier flexibility. With Giganet we have access to over 12 different carriers and we have a diverse core network to ensure we can offer the fastest, resilient connections across the UK.

 

Improved Pricing

Linked to the above, larger providers usually have access to their own network footprint which can work out more expensive than newer and more innovative carrier options. Also for leased line services, if their network is not in the local area, then they may have to long-haul or leased long-distance fibre circuits which could add significant cost.

As Giganet partners with over 12 national carriers, including our own investment in the local exchanges for our Giganet Local areas, Giganet is in a unique place to offer the most competitive of pricing for our ELITE leased line and UltraBEAM FTTP broadband services.

 

Proper Business-Grade Broadband

Many of the larger providers tend to rebadge consumer home broadband services as business, but don’t actually add any additional service levels or repair maintenance services to the circuits. This can mean that if there is a fault, it takes over two days to be resolved (assuming they use the standard Care Level 2 maintenance plan). Why do they do this; for their headline prices we suspect?

Is up to two days’ worth of outage for your business’s Internet connectivity worth saving a few pounds a month for? When so much of your business is run over the broadband connection, from Office 365 and E-mail, to hosted VoIP, cloud backup and CRMs, connectivity is critical and you demand the best service you can get.

All Giganet business broadband services, as well as all ELITE leased lines come with 24x7x365 and 6 hr guarantee fix as standard.

 

Unparalleled Customer Experience

A recent survey by consumer group Which? found that the top broadband providers were ranked the lowest in customer satisfaction “year after year”. The smaller Zen Internet, a provider that we partner with, came top in the rankings. Alternative ISPs are focused on customer excellence and on retaining customers. It means they are not only delivering the best service and value, but they work with the customer to advise and implement the best solution for their premises.

Large providers also know that switching Internet can be a hassle for many customers. It’s why one study revealed that some residential customers who didn’t haggle the price at renewal were being charged “loyalty penalties”.

At Giganet, we’re transparent from quote to renewal. Anyone can use our innovative quote checker online and get an accurate price for their location. It’s a feature that is rare in our industry for procuring leased lines, but we believe in providing you with all the information you need to make an informed decision.

More Resilient Options

We understand that for many customers, Internet connectivity is essential to the running of their business. So we are pleased to offer bespoke backup solutions to ensure resilience. This can include automatic failovers and RO2 connections for peace of mind, with multiple carriers and technologies adding to the mix. HA/ cluster mode routers can offer hardware backup onsite too. Giganet only uses the best carrier-grade hardware for our core and customers, including Cisco and Juniper for our ELITE leased lines and MPLS connections.

 

Open Communications

We have a Network Status page which shows any network issues or maintenance, as we believe that transparency is very important. You can subscribe to receive E-mail, SMS, RSS or Webhook alerts for any future maintenance or network incidents. This page is completely open for the public to see.

 

Working with the Local Community

We live and breathe our local community. We have dedicated area managers that are present at conferences, networking events, launch days and other charity and local events so that businesses in areas like Portsmouth, Winchester, Reading, Salisbury and Basingstoke can speak to us directly. It allows us to offer a truly tailored Internet service to our customers. Something that can be difficult with a larger Internet provider.

Our success from the local community enables us to give more back to it.

 

At Giganet, we provide ultrafast Internet to businesses across the UK through our own infrastructure and partnership with leading carriers including CityFibre, Openreach, Zen, TalkTalk, Glide and more. We know how important customer experience is and that’s why we’re proud to offer some of the best customer service in the market through our dedicated support team.

If you’re looking to upgrade your Internet connectivity, contact us now.