Is business internet service a worthwhile investment?

[Mechonis]

So, I've been using the same dumb internet service for years and its getting to the point where the available bandwidth and speeds are just to minute for what I do online. Currently, I have 30 Mbps down, 3 Mbps up, and a wretched 250 GB cap. I want to drop the home phone services and get a better package. The problem is that all residential packages have a cap that I'd likely hit and the only way to increase the cap is to retain phone service.

I've since looked into my ISP's business plans and found one that seems to suite my needs. It offers 100 Mbps down and 15 Mbps up. There's still a data cap, but I doubt I need to worry about hitting a 1 TB limit.

I'm really wondering if its a good idea or even legal to utilize a business internet plan for residential use. The advertised cost isn't that far off from that of the highest available residential plan (in fact it is cheaper & has a greater data cap). Is there some kind of extra fee required for a business plan?

 

[photonboy]

Something doesn't make sense if it's actually cheaper.

update: I guess if the business plan doesn't include the phone service it's not apples-to-apples

There should be a terms of agreement or similar section that spells out the plan. If it wasn't legal there should be a clear reason why not (not sure how they could enforce that).

 

[jsmithepa]

Am unaware there is any legality involved. It just a product, they sell it, you buy, that simple. Go4rit.

 

[gbb0330]

investment !?!?

 

[Mechonis]

Something doesn't make sense if it's actually cheaper.

update: I guess if the business plan doesn't include the phone service it's not apples-to-apples

There should be a terms of agreement or similar section that spells out the plan. If it wasn't legal there should be a clear reason why not (not sure how they could enforce that).

Here's a comparison of the plans with the business plan on the left and the residential plan on the right. The residential plan does have better download speed, but also has a 500 GB data cap; the buisiness plan has a 1 Tb cap.

 

[bill001g]

You trade a larger cap for a high max download rate. Other than that they likely are pretty much the same. Only you can determine if the cap is worth more than being able to download faster.

Now if they had better service level guarantees like they will come out and fix it in the middle of the night on a weekend then it has more value. This is a "business" account in name only. Real business accounts have features related to response time to outages etc. If a business is going to lose money if their internet is down they actually need these better.

This looks mostly like a marketing ploy so pick which you feel better meets your needs.