Business Connectivity Types Explained
Not all internet connections are equal. Understanding the options will help you match your requirements to the right product:
| Type | Best For | Typical SLA |
|---|---|---|
| Dedicated Fiber (Metro Ethernet) | HQ, data centres, high-traffic sites | 99.9–99.99% uptime |
| MPLS | Branch connectivity with QoS guarantees | 99.9% + latency SLA |
| SD-WAN (managed) | Multi-site, flexible WAN with failover | Varies by underlay |
| Business Broadband | Small offices, cost-sensitive sites | Best-effort, no guarantee |
| 4G/5G Backup | Failover for primary connectivity | Carrier-dependent |
Understanding Telecom SLAs
A Service Level Agreement (SLA) is only as good as what it actually commits to — and the penalty for missing it. Watch for these distinctions:
- Uptime vs availability. "99.9% uptime" allows ~8.7 hours of downtime per year. "99.99%" allows ~52 minutes. For financial services or e-commerce, the difference is significant.
- Mean Time to Repair (MTTR). How quickly will they restore service after an outage? 4 hours is standard; 2 hours or less is better.
- Planned maintenance windows. These are often excluded from SLA calculations. Understand when and how often they occur.
- Credits vs remedies. Most SLA credits are small fractions of monthly fees. They compensate you — they don't reflect the business cost of the outage. Negotiate higher credits for mission-critical links.
MPLS vs SD-WAN: Which Is Right for You?
MPLS has been the enterprise WAN standard for 20+ years: private, low-latency, with strong QoS. But it's expensive and inflexible. SD-WAN has emerged as a more agile alternative, routing traffic intelligently across multiple underlying connections (fiber, 4G, broadband).
Consider SD-WAN if:
- You have 5+ branch locations with varying connectivity needs
- You use cloud-hosted applications (O365, Salesforce, AWS) where direct internet routing outperforms backhauled MPLS
- You need cost-effective failover without paying for a second dedicated circuit
- You want centralised visibility and policy management across all sites
Stick with MPLS (or supplement) if:
- You run real-time applications (trading, video surgery, factory control systems) with strict latency and jitter requirements
- Regulatory requirements mandate a private network
Multi-Site and ASEAN Considerations
If your business spans multiple offices across Singapore and the wider ASEAN region, your choice of telecom provider has significant implications:
- Confirm the provider has their own network infrastructure (not just reselling) in each country you operate in
- Ask about cross-border latency benchmarks and whether they operate IXP peering locally
- Understand how international failover is handled — local carriers often have better last-mile control than global providers
Questions to Ask Before Signing
- Do you own the fiber on the last mile to my building, or are you leasing it from OpenNet / another carrier?
- What is your SLA for Mean Time to Repair, and what credits apply when it's breached?
- Can you provide a network map showing your Singapore points of presence?
- How is planned maintenance communicated and excluded from SLA calculations?
- What redundancy exists on your backbone — is there a single point of failure?
- What monitoring tools do you provide, and can I access real-time circuit telemetry?
Red Flags to Watch Out For
- Vague uptime guarantees. "We aim for 99.9%" is not a contractual SLA. Push for written commitments with defined measurement windows.
- No local NOC. If their Network Operations Centre is overseas, after-hours faults can fall through the cracks. Confirm 24/7 local monitoring.
- Contract auto-renewals. Many business telecom contracts auto-renew at higher rates. Confirm the notice period and rate lock terms.
- Headline speeds that don't reflect real throughput. Ask for a speed test guarantee during peak hours, not just synchronous lab specs.
Evaluation Checklist
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