The main difference between these packages is their nbnTM’s eSLA for fault restoration timeframes, which are especially crucial for companies that rely heavily on connectivity.

To determine the appropriate level of eSLA for your business, it’s important to weigh the potential financial impact of downtime against the cost of adding guarantees for uptime and fault restoration timeframes to your service.

An eSLA or Enhanced Service Level Agreement is a type of service level agreement that guarantees a higher level of support with faster fault rectification. The term “enhanced” is used to denote the fact that this type of service level agreement provides a greater level of support than a standard service level agreement.

For businesses, having an eSLA is particularly important since it minimises the risk of service disruption. If a fault occurs, an eSLA ensures that it will be rectified within a specific timeframe, thus reducing the impact of the fault on the business’s operations. This is in contrast to a residential-grade nbnTM service, which may have a longer timeframe for fault rectification and may not provide the same level of support.

Enterprise-level nbnTM services offer various support packages, allowing businesses to choose the eSLA that best suits their requirements. These support packages include 12-hour, 8-hour, or 4-hour eSLA fault rectification timeframe options, all of which are available 24/7. The shorter the timeframe, the faster the fault rectification, and the greater the level of support.

In summary, an eSLA is a service level agreement that provides a higher level of support with faster fault rectification within a specific timeframe. This type of service level agreement is particularly important for businesses, as it minimises the risk of service disruption and is one of the key differences between business-grade and residential-grade nbnTM services.

nbn™ Enterprise Ethernet (EE) is a premium business-grade fibre service provided by nbn™ in Australia. It is a Layer 2 carrier-grade fibre service that offers the highest levels of speed, performance, and reliability across the nbn™ ethernet access network.

EE provides symmetrical bandwidth profiles with traffic prioritisation, which is controlled by Class of Service (CoS). CoS is a mechanism that enables traffic to be classified according to its importance, and it prioritises traffic accordingly. EE provides both Low CoS and High CoS features, which allows businesses to prioritise their traffic as per their requirements.

Low CoS provides an excess information rate with best effort contention. This means that data traffic is treated on a first-come, first-served basis, with no guarantee of delivery. This feature is suitable for low priority applications such as internet browsing and emails, which do not require high levels of service availability.

In contrast, High CoS provides a committed 1:1 information rate that guarantees the delivery of data without delay. This feature is ideal for time-sensitive applications such as voice, video conferencing, and CRM database queries that require a high level of service availability.

Overall, nbn™ Enterprise Ethernet with Low CoS and High CoS provides businesses with a flexible, reliable, and customisable solution for their connectivity needs. It allows them to optimise their traffic to ensure that critical business applications receive the highest levels of service availability, while non-critical traffic is still accommodated but with lower levels of service guarantees.

To put it briefly, the distinction lies in the fact that best effort bandwidth operates on a first-come-first-serve basis, while priority bandwidth allows specific traffic to be processed first, and committed bandwidth guarantees that you always have 1:1 bandwidth available for your data.

Priority and committed bandwidth are typically used by larger businesses with more specific network requirements to ensure that bandwidth is always available with high reliability to support critical services such as phone systems, videoconferencing, and cloud applications. In contrast, smaller businesses with fewer connection requirements often use best effort bandwidth for non-critical applications, such as web browsing, email, and streaming content.

In essence, the contrast lies in the fact that best effort bandwidth functions on a first-come, first-serve basis, priority bandwidth enables specific traffic to be processed first, while committed bandwidth guarantees you always have 1:1 bandwidth accessible for your data. Larger enterprises with more specialised network demands use priority and committed bandwidth to guarantee that bandwidth is consistently accessible with high reliability to support crucial services, including phone systems, videoconferencing, cloud applications, and more. Meanwhile, smaller businesses with fewer connection requirements commonly use best effort bandwidth for non-critical applications, such as web browsing, email, streaming content, and more.

In essence, the difference between best effort, priority, and committed bandwidth lies in the level of service that each provides. Best effort bandwidth operates on a first-come, first-serve basis, meaning that all traffic is processed in the order in which it is received. This type of bandwidth is often used by smaller businesses with less critical network requirements and is ideal for non-essential applications such as web browsing, email, and streaming content.

On the other hand, priority bandwidth enables certain traffic to be processed first, which is essential for larger businesses with more specific network demands. For example, companies that rely heavily on phone systems, video conferencing, and other real-time applications need a higher level of service than best effort bandwidth can provide. Priority bandwidth guarantees that this type of traffic will always be processed first, ensuring a high level of reliability and quality of service.

Committed bandwidth takes this a step further by guaranteeing that you always have 1:1 bandwidth available for your data. This level of service is essential for businesses that require a consistently high level of network performance to support critical services such as voice and video communications, CRM databases, and cloud applications. With committed bandwidth, you are assured that your network will always be able to handle the demands of your most important applications.

Overall, the choice between best effort, priority, and committed bandwidth depends on the specific network requirements of your business. Smaller businesses with less critical network demands may be fine with best effort bandwidth, while larger businesses with more specific requirements may need the higher levels of service provided by priority or committed bandwidth.

While it’s possible to use your own router with this service, it’s important to note that your router must meet certain requirements. Specifically, it needs to have a gigabit WAN port that’s configurable for DHCP, and if you have a copper technology type, it must be compatible with VDSL/VDSL2+. To determine whether your router is compatible, please consult the documentation that came with it.