One thing that a modern business and a modern home have in common is that neither can do without the Internet. You see, both tools of work and tools for entertainment require a strong internet connection and a reliable bandwidth, which is why a homeowner and a business owner alike have the responsibility to make the best possible choice.
The quality of life and the budget will be affected by this decision but this is roughly where all these similarities stop. As for the differences… well, here’s what you need to know!
1. Speed and bandwidth
Bandwidth is often shared, which is why businesses need a bigger package compared to a residential plan.
For instance, emails and web surfing take just 0.5 to 1 Mbps per device. Music streaming will take 1 to 2 Mbps. SD video streaming is roughly 2 to 3 Mbps, while video calls and gaming can use between 3 and 5 Mbps per device. HD video streaming is 5 to 25 Mbps, whereas 4K video streaming and gaming is roughly 25 to 50 Mbps.
In residential homes, you have one to six people (on average) in the household; they’re not all doing the most data-demanding activity at the same time. In fact, they are probably not even all at home at the same time.
With a business, the daily schedule structure is different. When it comes to office work, there are usually no shifts. Even if you have overnight support, this is often remote work, which doesn’t require in-office presence.
In other words, everyone’s there at the same time, and everyone is using the internet simultaneously.
On top of this, with the IoT and reliance on smart appliances, you may engage in tasks that are even more data-demanding than the 4K video streaming.
In other words, you may need an even faster internet than you originally anticipated.
2. Service level agreements and customer support
According to the specialists behind West Wisconsin Telecom, one of the biggest differences between business and residential internet lies in special SLAs (service level agreements). You see, a business depends on its internet to work, and it develops a plan based on the expected (and promised) performance of its Internet.
This means that they leave nothing up to chance, and they make a special contract that guarantees a certain performance level, uptime, and response time. While no respectable internet provider would deliberately provide an inferior service to a residential home, the truth is that an extra layer of legal protection makes a client feel more secure.
Aside from these contracts, it’s not a controversial thing to say that enterprises receive slightly superior customer support. Sure, every user is equally important, but for an enterprise, a connection problem is a huge disaster, while for a residential home, this is often an inconvenience. Of course, with so many people working from home, this might not always be the case.
On average, residential homes have to wait more for the problem to be fixed, seeing as how field teams usually prioritize businesses. This is the utilitarian approach to customer support, which is not always fair, even if it makes perfect sense.
3. Security features
The next thing you need to understand is that, when it comes to security features, ISPs often go out of their way to provide extra features to businesses. Firewalls, VPNs, and DDoS protection are just some of the additional protection methods that are often thrown into a bundle.
Keep in mind that these businesses are not getting these services for free. While they are sometimes added to sweeten the deal, more often than not, they’re just silently included in the price.
When it comes to residential users, they’re usually left to fend for themselves. Keep in mind that all of these services are available even to residential users; they just have to find them independently or go out of their way to negotiate their inclusion into the bundle (and pay extra).
At the same time, the cybersecurity needs of residential users are not the same as those of a business. For a business, when cybersecurity is affected, lives and livelihoods are at stake. At the same time, with more and more homeowners living in smart homes and using IoT devices, the consequences of a cybersecurity breach may be dire, as well.
Still, this can vary on a case-to-case basis, so study your contract carefully before agreeing to any deal.
4. Scalability
Even as a residential owner, you can always upgrade to a better plan. The problem is that downscaling isn’t as easy. You usually have to wait for a certain period of time to expire before you can request that your plan be downsized.
Businesses have more flexibility. If a business needs to grow, it can slightly increase its plan or gradually increase it over a period of time. They usually get charged per user, which means that they can scale up or down depending on their needs. This financial flexibility is so important at a time when many small businesses already struggle with cash flow.
Just knowing that you have this option can be so reassuring.
As we’ve already mentioned, even residential users can change their plan, but there’s usually a steeper change that needs to be made. You see, it’s never just paying for one or two extra users. You usually have to switch to a pre-set plan that is far more potent and far more expensive.
Whereas a business can adapt on the go, for a user at a residential home, a decision to change a plan is always a major decision. This is also why, on average, people in residential homes change their plans less often.
Wrap up
At the end of the day, this choice is not irreversible, and it’s not as if making a bad choice will instantly destroy your business or make your home unlivable. There’s nothing to worry about. Usually, you’ll have to choose between plans that are slightly different, and picking a better choice will make a positive difference. As long as you do your research and sleep a bit on it (after all, it is a major decision), you should be all right. This much is true for business owners and homeowners alike.
