Finally, the National Broadband Network is here, and — on the surface at least — is seems to offer more access for less.
As the service is subsidised by government funds, private sector service providers are finding it hard to compete with the throughput on offer for the pricing listed.
But are the savings worth it?
Having had a number of our clients ask Orion about the feasibility of switching across to NBN, it is a worthwhile exercise to look at the key factors you should consider, which will ultimately impact on your outcomes and expectations.
The most important of these as we head into 2017 will be the impact on remote projects — here, cost is an ever-present consideration but so too are high priorities such as reliability, down time, contact, applications, connections, complex topologies and data requirements.
So, let’s consider the implication and outcomes of a switch to NBN:
- You lose flexibility to manage complex networks
One of the big advantages of our service is Orion has total end-to-end visibility and ownership of the network allowing us to:
- Configure and maintain quality of services depending on unique site needs
- Provide a layer 2 service
- Provide DMVPN or routed services
- Disable features as our customers require.
Unfortunately, NBN is unable to support basic commercial functionalities such as terminating into corporate WANs, prioritising traffic types at a network level or delivery of a private network.
- You lose support around the delivery of commercial applications
Orion works with many clients who have complex, often tailored applications that keep their business running as it should. For that reason, we provide after-care support to ensure application performance, QoS and priority can be configured to suit site and application needs, and we are dedicated to working smarter rather than just throwing more bandwidth at an issue.
In contrast, the NBN is unable to deliver custom configuration to support commercial applications relating to accounting, purchasing and management software packages and programs.
- You may get squeezed on data limits
This is a big one for many businesses: Orion can offer dedicated bandwidth channels as well as unlimited data plan options.
The NBN Fair Access policy can hamper/ limit some high usage sites, however, and the NBN contention ratio is liquid.
- You might be stuck in one place
We are a provider of choice for many of Western Australia’s remote exploration companies and mining sites, in part because of our focus on service portability.
Orion’s VSAT can be moved without the need for a technician visit, particularly useful for exploration projects or small camps/sites.
We realise the importance of mobility, being able to relocate a service, and the reliable availability of communications whilst on the move.
NBN services are fixed and cannot be relocated.
- You lose tailored support on demand
We can offer 24/7 support and adhere to strict service level agreements. But that’s just part of the advantage of working with us. Since technicians are not needed to support Orion systems, any downtime can be minimised, and our end-to-end ownership of network means Orion can troubleshoot much quicker if you had to gather information and escalate the issue to NBN.
Typically, our technicians can be on site within two days should a local issue need to be resolved.
Compare that to NBN: Once NBN faults are reported, the information must be shifted through multiple departments and providers, risking loss of detail and miscommunications.
Service calls are booked by the NBN and cannot be expedited, with support usually taking, on average, 10 working days to attend.
So before you take the plunge and switch to NBN motivated by cost, talk to us about some of the other considerations that need to be taken into account. It may be that a more tailored service can give you some of the savings you seek, without losing the service and reliability your business needs. Interested in knowing more? Give us a call on 1800 063 123 and we can chat.