Business internet is priced building by building, not city by city. The price depends on which carriers already have fiber inside your building, how far the nearest fiber is if none do, and how many carriers can compete for your order. Two buildings on the same block can differ on all three, which is why your neighbour can pay half what you were quoted for the same speed without anyone doing anything wrong.
A business calls us convinced they have been quoted badly, because the company across the street pays much less. Usually nobody is being cheated. The two buildings are simply different buildings.
On-net, near-net and off-net
Carriers sort every address into one of three buckets, and the bucket drives both the price and the install date.
| Status | What it means | What it does to your quote |
|---|---|---|
| On-net (lit) | The carrier already has fiber terminating inside the building. | No construction. Typical install 2–4 weeks. Price competition if several carriers are lit. |
| Near-net | The carrier's fiber runs nearby, usually in the street, but not into the building. | A lateral must be built. Construction cost and 60–90 days or more. |
| Off-net | The carrier has no fiber close by and would lease the last mile from another provider. | An extra layer of cost, and the carrier depends on someone else's network for your connection. |
"Lit" is the word that matters
If three carriers are lit in your tower, all three can sell you a circuit without digging anything, and they each know the others can too. That competition is what produces a good price. If only one carrier is lit, it has less reason to sharpen its pencil.
What building a lateral involves
If no carrier is lit, someone has to physically bring fiber from the street into your suite. That is a construction project: permits, sometimes street or sidewalk work, a way into the building, space in the riser, and landlord coordination. The cost has to be recovered somewhere, either as a one-time construction charge, a longer required term, or a higher monthly rate. Our guide to fiber installation timelines covers what that does to your schedule.
Why the building next door can be different
Carriers built where demand justified it, sometimes decades ago, and their footprints do not line up neatly. Several things make neighbouring buildings diverge:
- Tenant history. A building that once housed a bank, a media company or a data-heavy tenant may have been lit years ago. The identical building beside it, subdivided into small suites, may never have justified the build.
- Landlord access. Carriers need a building access agreement to install and maintain equipment. Some owners sign readily. Others are slow, charge fees, or limit which carriers get in.
- Physical pathways. An old building with a full riser or no spare conduit at the street is expensive to enter, so carriers wait for a large order.
- Which side of the street the fiber runs. Crossing a street or an avenue can require its own permits and cost.
Other things that move the price
Building status is the largest factor, but not the only one:
- Bandwidth. Higher speeds cost more, though rarely in proportion. Doubling bandwidth usually costs well under double.
- Term. Longer terms usually lower the monthly rate, especially where construction must be recovered.
- Product. A dedicated circuit with an SLA is priced very differently from shared fiber in the same building. See DIA vs shared fiber vs coax.
- Distance, for site-to-site services. For private connections between your own locations, the distance between the sites and the carrier's points of presence also affects the price.
- The carrier's appetite. A carrier trying to fill capacity in a building, or chasing a sales target, may price more aggressively than one that is not.
A worked example
A hypothetical illustration. The buildings, carriers and outcomes are invented to show the mechanism.
Building A is a 20-storey office tower with three carriers lit. A 500 Mbps DIA request goes out and all three respond within days, each knowing it is competing. There is no construction charge, the install window is a few weeks, and the lowest of the three bids sets the price.
Building B, next door, is a converted loft with no carrier lit. One carrier has fiber in the street and quotes a lateral with a construction charge and a 90-day timeline. A second can serve it only off-net at a higher monthly rate. The third declines to bid. The same 500 Mbps circuit is now more expensive and slower to arrive, and the tenant in Building B has done nothing wrong. They just need to know this before choosing between a construction charge, a longer term, or a shared fiber or coax service that is already in the building.
If your building is poorly served
Being in a building with no lit carrier is not a dead end. The options, roughly in order of speed:
- Use what is already there. Shared fiber or coax may already reach the building, even if no carrier offers dedicated fiber. It can carry you while a better option is built, then stay on as a backup.
- Fixed wireless. Where there is roof access and line of sight, a wireless link can deliver business-grade service without any street work.
- Trade term for construction. Carriers will sometimes reduce or waive a construction charge in exchange for a longer contract, because the term lets them recover the build. It can be a good deal if you plan to stay.
- Combine demand. If other tenants in the building also want fiber, a carrier is more likely to build. Landlords sometimes help organise this, because a lit building is easier to lease.
- Involve the landlord. A landlord who wants to keep tenants has a reason to sign access agreements quickly and to let a carrier use existing conduit.
Near-net buildings in particular can turn out well. Once a carrier has built into a building, it wants more customers there, and the tenant who funded the lateral is often in a strong position at the next renewal.
What coverage maps do not show
Coverage maps are marketing. They show metros and neighbourhoods, not buildings, and certainly not suites. A carrier can honestly say it "covers" your area and still need a 90-day build to reach your floor. The only answer that counts is a qualification against your exact street address and suite number, carrier by carrier.
This holds everywhere we work, from Manhattan towers to office parks in Austin, converted warehouses in Chicago and Los Angeles, and mixed-use buildings in Miami. Dense cities have more lit buildings, but they also have more variation from one door to the next. See the service areas page for the markets we cover.
How to get a real number
- Give the full address, including floor and suite. Where the circuit terminates changes the work involved.
- Ask each carrier for its on-net status in writing: lit, near-net or off-net.
- Get construction costs and timelines in writing before you sign, not in week six.
- Compare like for like: same speed, same product, same term, same SLA.
- Get more than one bid. One quote is one carrier's view of one building. Without a second and third, you cannot tell whether it is good.
Why a quote has an expiry date
Business internet quotes are usually valid for a limited period, often somewhere between 30 and 90 days. That is not a sales tactic. The price reflects the carrier's view of the building at that moment: its capacity there, any construction estimate, and how much it wants the order. Construction estimates in particular may be re-checked before the order is accepted, because permit rules and street conditions change.
Two practical consequences. First, compare quotes gathered at roughly the same time, not a fresh quote against one from last year. Second, if a move or a renewal is months away, qualify the address early to learn what is possible, then refresh the pricing closer to the decision.
Questions to ask your carrier
- Are you on-net in this building today? If not, how far is your nearest fiber?
- If construction is needed, what is the one-time charge, and can it be waived or spread over a longer term?
- Is this circuit delivered over your own network end to end, or over a leased last mile?
- Do you already have a building access agreement with this landlord?
- What happens to the price and install date if the landlord or permits delay the work?
- How long is this quote valid, and will the construction estimate be re-checked before you accept the order?
The practical step
Before you accept any number, have your exact address qualified across every network that could serve it. That is the whole of what a multi-carrier agency does: several carriers bid on your building, and we bring back the best offer. The carrier pays us, so the invoice is not marked up, and the quote is free with no obligation. Send us the address, or see how it works on our pricing page. You can also call 478-758-8091 or text (347) 870-0965, and we usually respond the same day.
