[Snap] What is the difference between residential and business plans?

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Delitus

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#138882 20-Jan-2014 18:54

While looking at the plans, I notice that the plans listed under Work Services offer less base data while being priced higher. The same applies for the optional data upgrades. Beyond that, I cannot find any differences between the two.

I am curious - is there something extra which business plans have that residential plans do not? Thank you.

nitrotech

1285 posts

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#970219 20-Jan-2014 19:07

You're right businesses are being screwed over by ISPs.

It wasn't long ago that you needed to be on a business plan to get a decent sized cap - now it's totally reversed to the point of stupidity. Many businesses would benefit from cloud based solutions and in my view the current business caps are holding business back.

While there are sometimes better SLAs built into some business plans often you're no better off than a residential customer but you pay more for less.

UFB is a difficult sell to businesses when it comes with a 30gb cap

RunningMan

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#970222 20-Jan-2014 19:15

nitrotech: You're right businesses are being screwed over by ISPs.

IMHO, a simplistic view.

Business plans would [generally] have service level agreements with a guaranteed time frame for uptime and fault resolution, and/or guaranteed bandwidth. For some ISPs there will be a different (perhaps more accessible) help desk / support team as well.

Residential connections are generally a best effort basis, and if guaranteed bandwidth is not required are perfectly usable for some business needs, until such time as there is some issue which requires resolution or intervention, in which case having the SLA and/or higher level tech support could pay for themselves very quickly.

xpd

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#970223 20-Jan-2014 19:15

I asked our business account manager and she couldnt give me an answer.... only benefit you seem to get is a NZ based helpdesk who are pretty prompt to jump on things, but only during business hours.

If its ADSL, no SLA can really be applied as its best effort on copper.

Gavin / xpd / FastRaccoon / Geek of Coastguard New Zealand

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NonprayingMantis

6434 posts

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#970224 20-Jan-2014 19:16

Could be lots of things.

Most likely is better slas, which mean of you have issues it gets fixed quicker.

NonprayingMantis

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#970225 20-Jan-2014 19:19

One other important factor. If you are on a business plan and your connection goes down, you are allowed to moan about how much money it has lost you on geekzone. If you are on a residential plan you get zero sympathy for your lost business.

nitrotech

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#970241 20-Jan-2014 19:34

RunningMan:
nitrotech: You're right businesses are being screwed over by ISPs.

IMHO, a simplistic view.

Business plans would [generally] have service level agreements with a guaranteed time frame for uptime and fault resolution, and/or guaranteed bandwidth. For some ISPs there will be a different (perhaps more accessible) help desk / support team as well.

Residential connections are generally a best effort basis, and if guaranteed bandwidth is not required are perfectly usable for some business needs, until such time as there is some issue which requires resolution or intervention, in which case having the SLA and/or higher level tech support could pay for themselves very quickly.

I have done a little digging and can't find the Terms and Conditions for snap or telecom to compare the business and residential however I think you'll find there's actually very little difference.

If I get some time I'll take a further look at the differences and put it into a spreadsheet.

Surely you'd agree that the business data caps are appallingly low.

sbiddle

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#970256 20-Jan-2014 19:49

xpd: I asked our business account manager and she couldnt give me an answer.... only benefit you seem to get is a NZ based helpdesk who are pretty prompt to jump on things, but only during business hours.

If its ADSL, no SLA can really be applied as its best effort on copper.

While it may be best effort over the copper it doesn't mean an ISP can't offer better upstream bandwidth.

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RunningMan

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#970275 20-Jan-2014 20:42

nitrotech: Surely you'd agree that the business data caps are appallingly low.

Yes, they're certainly lower for the same priced plan - what I was touching on though is that businesses and households have different requirements. For a residential user, getting more data for less cost is a common requirement, with reliability or guaranteed throughput less important. In contrast, a business may require that consistent bandwidth, and the cost to the business by not having that connection can far exceed the cost of the connection. You're not just paying for a data cap - guess it's the quantity vs quality argument...

nitrotech

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#970288 20-Jan-2014 20:56

RunningMan:
nitrotech: Surely you'd agree that the business data caps are appallingly low.

Yes, they're certainly lower for the same priced plan - what I was touching on though is that businesses and households have different requirements. For a residential user, getting more data for less cost is a common requirement, with reliability or guaranteed throughput less important. In contrast, a business may require that consistent bandwidth, and the cost to the business by not having that connection can far exceed the cost of the connection. You're not just paying for a data cap - guess it's the quantity vs quality argument...

Not just that, you often can't get higher caps if you want them eg. Telecom max is 200gb then overage at $1.15 per GB

I have a client who uploads 120gb of backup files per month plus regular usage of 80gb we can't upload her photos because of the extra data costs per month.

RunningMan

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#970289 20-Jan-2014 20:59

Use two connections perhaps?

Business with SLA for critical stuff, and a residential grade / no data cap for the bulk stuff. Gives redundancy as well... just an idea...

nitrotech

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#970301 20-Jan-2014 21:18

RunningMan: Use two connections perhaps?

Business with SLA for critical stuff, and a residential grade / no data cap for the bulk stuff. Gives redundancy as well... just an idea...

I actually do this at work we have fibre and vdsl. Wont work for my client as they wont see the benefits (until their connection goes down)

Do you know what's in the business SLA, I'm really interested to know what's in there to justify the cost.

RunningMan

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#970308 20-Jan-2014 21:25

Probably best to ask a Snap! business CSR for the specifics

nitrotech

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#970311 20-Jan-2014 21:27

Found the Telecom t's and c's no commitment whatsoever other than 'being committed to proving the service' - seems to be unable to justify the price and data differential.