A business calls us convinced they have been quoted badly, because the company across the street pays half as much for the same speed. Usually nobody is being cheated. The two buildings are simply different buildings.
"Lit" is the word that matters
A building is lit (or "on-net") for a given carrier when that carrier already has fiber terminating inside it. If three carriers are lit in your tower, all three can sell you a circuit tomorrow, and they know the others can too. That competition is what produces a good price.
If no carrier is lit in your building, someone has to build a lateral — physically bring fiber from the street into your suite. That is construction: permits, possibly street work, landlord coordination, and a cost that has to be recovered somewhere.
Why the building next door can be different
Carriers built where the demand was, decades ago in some cases, and their footprints do not align neatly. A converted warehouse with one large tenant may have been lit years ago. The identical building beside it, subdivided into small suites, may never have justified the build. Same street, same postcode, entirely different economics.
What this means for you
- Coverage maps are marketing. They show metros, not buildings. The only answer that counts is a qualification against your exact street address and suite.
- One quote is not a market price. It is one carrier's view of one building. Without a second and third, you cannot tell whether it is good.
- Ask about construction up front. If a lateral is required, the cost and the timeline should be in writing before you sign, not discovered in week six.
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, and it costs you nothing to have it done.
