Regardless of the size of your business enterprise, an internet connection is a key requirement to reaching your clients efficiently. There’s a lot to consider before zeroing down on the best internet plan to go with but the choice is always between the shared, dedicated, and managed internet solutions.
It is essential that you find out exactly what each of these plans can offer you so that you can decide which one is best for you. The basis here is first understanding your business needs and matching the costs with the benefits.
Let’s a take a look!
How shared internet solutions work
From the name, shared internet implies more than one client using the same connection. A number of consumers can choose to access an internet connection and have the cost of that connection shared between them. This internet solution is often delivered with coaxial copper cable or through a passive fibre network, and is a perfect choice for home internet connection.
With the shared internet plan, it is your service provider that determines the number of users likely to be online at ago. Also, the download and upload speeds on the shared-system are set “up to” a particular speed.
Basically, the speeds achieved are determined by the number of users utilizing the link at that particular moment, that’s why it’s mainly designed for home. For instance, if you are subscribing for an upto 20 mbps, the best speeds you can achieve will be dependent on how many other clients are utilizing the 20mbps pipe at a particular time.
In this case, the service provider does not guarantee these speeds. The more users online, the more the speeds are compromised hence the peak and off peak hours. This is Subject to Fair Usage Policy (FUP).
If traffic on the system is light, users will experience faster download speeds whereas if the system is busy and other users are streaming video or uploading large files, download speeds will decrease.
How dedicated internet solutions work
With a dedicated internet plan, your business is the sole subscriber to a specified amount of bandwidth. Dedicated fibre clients basically own their bandwidth and rarely, if ever, experience downtime. This is because the download and upload speeds are guaranteed and synchronous.
When you subscribe for 10mbps dedicated, the service provider gives you 10mbps speeds all through the subscription period. You should be able to do a speed test at the router and achieve 10mbps. Interestingly, there is no control on how much data you can use . The speed performance will only be determined by how much you decide to load on your link.
Additionally, you don’t have to worry about access being oversubscribed.
How managed internet solutions work
A managed internet plan is a dedicated connection between your office premises and the internet, providing the ideal basis for high grade internet connectivity.
With this, the system manages your internet usage to ensure that you enjoy a reliable speed and stable service. If you are taking up to 5mbps speed, the system dedicates a given amount of data per given period of time and if you hit the max data for that threshold, the systems automatically reduce the speeds for a given period and they gradually increase again until they normalize.
Let’s take a case where you are given 250GB per hour to run at 5mbps. In an event that you use 200GB in 30 minutes, the system will slow you down for the next 30 minutes such that you don’t use up your remaining 50GB before the hour ends. At the top of the hour the system will automatically reload 250GB and return to normal speed. If you don’t hit the cap within the hour then the speeds will remain the same all through. This solution is best suited for SMEs and is also subject to Fair Usage Policy.
The difference between a managed internet plan and the other plans is all about regulation.
A managed service is regulated and overseen by your service provider which your service 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, to ensure that everything is running smoothly. This makes it easy to effectively and efficiently deal with any faults that may come up with the connection. Eventually, it removes the need for a fully operational IT service for your office.
Making the choice
Making a choice between either of the shared, managed or dedicated internet plans requires an extensive assessment of your current business needs and demands. You also ought to anticipate the type of need your business might expect in the long-term.
If you are on a tight budget, you can choose a less expensive option however at times you may not get an optimal experience especially if your usage patterns lean towards downloading larger files and video streaming.
For a home setting, with basic internet needs and a single location, you are likely to run on a fixed budget. Given that such a business needs the internet for standard jobs like email, limited streaming and web browsing, occasional slow-downs have no effect on activity. Thus, a shared internet plan is the best choice.
A medium or large-sized organization that transfers large files throughout the day, heavily relies on the cloud, and has multiple locations running on one network, will surely run on a much bigger budget. Here, the technical needs are much bigger and these require guaranteed speeds. In this case, any of the dedicated or managed internet plan is a perfect choice.
With Liquid Telecom, you get to experience each of plans and you can employ any to suit your business enterprise needs.
Liquid Telecom packages
Every package at Liquid Telecom is designed to give descent internet experience and the company continuously monitors usage trends of its customers and closely follows the world trends to make informed business decisions that keep in providing the best and valuable service to its customers.
If you need internet for single or family usage at home, with speed optimized for evenings, weekends and holidays, there’s a plan for you. At just UGX 120,000 installation fee, you get to sign up and enjoy unlimited internet usage on top of a free Wi-Fi router that provides the connection in your home.
| Package | Users | Offer | Price |
| Silver | Up to 5 | Up to 20 Mbps | UGX 169,000 |
| Gold | Up to 8 | Up to 40 Mbps | UGX 269,000 |
| Platinum | Up to 10 | Up to 100 Mbps | UGX 469,000 |
Then, if you wish to have the internet for office use, you just need to part with UGX 200,000 installation fee, and you’ll be signed up. You can choose from any of the following managed Liquid SME packages to get started.
| Package | Typical Number of Customers | Offer | Price |
| Liquid Office Bronze | Up to 5 | 5 Mbps | UGX 200,000 |
| Liquid Office Silver | Up to 10 | 10 Mbps | UGX 400,000 |
| Liquid Office Gold | Up to 35 | 15 Mbps | UGX 600,000 |
If you are interested in something more than just internet, the Liquid SME Premium solutions is just for you. These are designed for office use with a minimal contention ratio and a much better experience for collaborative solutions. You can also get these at just UGX 200,000 installation fee and get to enjoy Office 365 services such as Teams, SharePoint, excel, PPT, and exchange.
| Package | Offer | Monthly Price |
| Bronze Plus | 5mbps + 4 seats of Office 365 | UGX 290,000 |
| Silver Plus | 10mbps + 6 seats of Office 365 | UGX 535,000 |
| Gold Plus | 15mbps + 8 seats of Office 365 | UGX 779,500 |
| For every Extra seat | UGX 23,000 | |
However, if your business demands are more robust, a dedicated plan is the way to go. You can contact the Liquid Telecom team and negotiate for the best offer available to get the dedicated and managed connections right in your office.
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