If you want a faster, reliable and more affordable internet connection, for your business, read this.
Summit Internet boasts speeds that are up to 900% faster than your current NBN connection, business-grade SLAs and we can connect any business in our coverage area in only 10 days.
How about it? Want to bridge the gigabit gap, secure world-class internet, accelerate downloads, uploads, page loads and your business’s productivity into the 21st century?
We’ve Built and Operated our Fixed Wireless and Fibre Network in Greater Melbourne and Geelong for the Last 20 Years
Why We Used A Combination Of Fixed Wireless and Fibre
Our “last mile” – The connection from your building to our fibre– is delivered over a fixed wireless microwave link and not the NBN’s network.
We’ve used fixed wireless, where it makes sense, to expand our coverage area, reach businesses and handle our back-haul. There are so many advantages to fixed wireless or microwave technology. Recent advances have enabled incredibly high-throughput and because we don’t need to dig up the street and run cables, it’s much faster to deploy.
We’ve managed to quickly expand our network and we can now connect businesses anywhere within our 4,500km2 network footprint.
Now before you say, fixed wireless! I’ve heard that’s unreliable. I’ve heard it doesn’t work in the rain. I’ve heard it’s only good in rural areas. Let me stop you there.
Our fixed wireless is an improvement for any business that stuck on an NBN copper technology and rivals a FTTP connection for speed, price and reliability.
We can guarantee the same SLA over our fixed wireless as we provide over our fibre.
Don’t worry. I’m going to clear the air. In this post, we’ll talk about what fixed wireless really is. What it’s really capable of and what it can really mean for your business.
Our Fixed Wireless Network Is Very…Very Different To The NBN’s Fixed Wireless Network
In 2019, NBN Co revealed that one in ten – or 250 – microwave and fibre transmission links suffer unacceptable levels of packet loss.
This is not a consequence of using fixed wireless technology. It’s more likely that they’ve too many people connected to one in ten towers. Maybe they didn’t factor in Netflix and the bandwidth per user is exceeding what they planned.
If you think about what the NBN is trying to achieve, they are building a wholesale network that any ISP can plug into and then reach everyone in a rural area. Their mandate is blanket coverage for everyone.
When they erect a tower, an entire suburb, everyone who’s in range, will be connected.
If too many people live in the area – for one tower to realistically provide decent internet to – then the NBN can choose to build another tower or they can tolerate a little congestion.
Summit Internet has no mandate to connect everyone. We have very different goals and instead focus on providing enterprise-grade connections. We don’t need to try to squeeze an entire town or suburb onto one link.
Our network is a combination of fixed wireless and fibre. It’s an enterprise-grade service. That means improved SLAs, reliability and some of the extra features that enterprise needs, such as VoIP and direct connections to cloud services – AWS and Azure.
Summit Provides Enterprise-Grade Internet To Rural Areas Too
We like to focus on how Summit Internet is fixed wireless in the city, but even as you are reading this, our fixed wireless internet is providing 100Mbps + speeds to businesses in rural areas.
Our rural approach, and the quality of our service, is exactly the same as it is in the city. Granted, the equipment is bigger and costs a little bit more per subscriber, but still, we connect businesses one at a time – to our fibre – via a powerful personal microwave link.
Fixed Wireless Networks Can Outperform Terrestrial Connections For Redundancy
A large office building in the middle of CBD might have two or more fibre lead-ins that come in from different streets or directions.
They do this in case one cable breaks. There’s a larger upfront cost, but it is justified by that million-dollar what if.
We all have that what if.
A business park or SMB in the suburbs can lose internet and sacrifice hours or days of productivity, no different to an office in the CBD. However, it’s not as likely that a business park will have a redundancy in place.
A fibre redundancy is an expensive privilege reserved for the larger office buildings that can afford it.
Fixed wireless technology flips this paradigm on its head. With fixed wireless, a small agency, a mum and pop shop, a coworking space, or any SMB can afford multiple backup microwave links coming in from all different directions.
The reasons why are pretty obvious if you think about it. To install another link we don’t need to dig up another footpath or negotiate a second or third path into the building to run an expensive fibre cable.
We just pick a roof on the other side of your building, that already connected to our fibre loop and beam the internet to you from over there.
Microwave link fixed wireless backups are very common. It’s not like we’ve just discovered this. In addition to multiple fibre lead-ins and back up cables, the largest office buildings in the CBD will have microwave links on the roof that act as the ultimate fail-safe, protecting them when everything else goes wrong.
Let’s Talk Speed, How Fast Is Summit Internet’s Fixed Wireless?
Obtainable speeds are all based on area. What we can sell you will vary depending on how far you are from the transmission site, available capacity and what you’re willing to pay for a solution.
Most of our customers opt for speeds between 20Mbps and 100Mbps. From what we’ve observed most businesses want a connection that’s a little faster, but what they are really after is the improved reliability of our network because it’s service disruptions or downtime that are costing them sales and productivity.
Our speeds are symmetrical. That means that upload and download speeds are the same. That’s really important for business because most business applications have a collaborative component to them. You aren’t just consuming, and bringing data from the internet to your PC. You are sending data back to the internet. Anytime you use a cloud application, video call, remote desktop, or make a backup, you’ll be glad you have faster more reliable uploads.
I’ve Heard That Fixed Wireless Doesn’t Work In The Rain Or Has Terrible Latency
Fixed wireless definitely works in the rain.
It’s a persistent myth that’s hung around. It’s possible rain fade exists, but you’d need a very poorly engineered network for the rain to affect your fixed wireless internet.
While we are on the subject here are some other fixed wireless myths debunked.
Interested In Learning More or Connecting Your Business To Our Network?
To learn more about how Summit Internet can benefit your business give us a call.
Once we know your address then we can confirm what speeds are available and make a plan to move forward.
If your business does fall within our network footprint, then Summit Internet can get you up and running in only 10 days. If you’re close, you should talk to us anyways. We might still be able to work something out, or we’ll keep you in mind for future expansion.
Or you can follow us on LinkedIn if you’re interested in our progress.