Guaranteed Bandwidth, Guaranteed Performance — Dedicated Internet Access
Dedicated Internet Access (DIA) provides symmetrical, guaranteed bandwidth delivered on dedicated infrastructure — unlike shared business broadband, DIA capacity is reserved exclusively for your organization, providing consistent performance regardless of neighborhood traffic patterns.
What RLM Delivers on Dedicated Internet Access
DIA is the right choice for locations where internet connectivity is business-critical and shared broadband performance variability is unacceptable. RLM advises on DIA sizing, carrier evaluation, and the contract terms that ensure DIA's guarantees translate into actual performance.
How We Approach Dedicated Internet Access
We work Dedicated Internet Access the same way each time: establish the baseline, test the market properly, negotiate on evidence, and stay involved through implementation.
Location Criticality & Traffic Assessment
We identify which locations require DIA based on business criticality, application bandwidth demands, and the performance impact of broadband variability — building the business case for DIA investment at each candidate location.
DIA Provider Evaluation
We evaluate DIA providers at each location — incumbent telcos, CLECs, cable operators offering business DIA, and fiber ISPs — comparing bandwidth tiers, SLA quality, pricing, and installation lead times.
Bandwidth Sizing & Burstability
We right-size DIA bandwidth — analyzing utilization patterns, peak demand, growth projections, and the cost of over/under-provisioning — and evaluate burstable billing models for variable demand profiles.
SLA & Redundancy Design
We evaluate DIA SLA commitments and design the redundancy architecture — DIA primary with LTE failover, dual DIA from different providers, or DIA with SD-WAN over broadband backup — appropriate for each location's availability requirements.
Dedicated Internet Access Evaluation Criteria
These are the dimensions we have seen separate a Dedicated Internet Access deployment that works from one that quietly becomes shelfware.
Burstable vs. Committed Bandwidth
Some DIA services offer burstable billing — you pay for a committed base rate but can burst to higher speeds. Evaluate burstable pricing against your traffic patterns — burstable billing can provide better economics for variable demand.
Symmetrical vs. Asymmetrical Needs
DIA is symmetrical by design. Evaluate whether your applications genuinely require symmetrical bandwidth or whether asymmetrical services (more download than upload) could meet your requirements at lower cost.
SLA Specificity
DIA SLAs should specify latency, packet loss, jitter, and uptime — not just uptime alone. Evaluate the specificity of SLA commitments and the measurement methodology used to assess compliance.
Installation Lead Time
DIA on dedicated fiber infrastructure requires lead times of 30-90 days depending on market and provider. Evaluate lead times when planning new locations or critical application deployments.
Cost vs. Shared Broadband
DIA costs significantly more per Mbps than shared broadband. Evaluate the cost premium against the actual business impact of broadband performance variability — not all locations justify DIA economics.
Secondary Circuit Strategy
DIA provides guaranteed performance but not guaranteed availability. Evaluate the backup strategy for DIA circuit failures — secondary DIA, LTE, or broadband backup — based on your uptime requirements.
"The RLM team understood our network complexity from day one. Their vendor-neutral approach helped us find the right solution — not just the one with the biggest marketing budget."
No upfront fees, no retainer, and no obligation to act on what we find.
Where This Matters Most
Sector-specific considerations we see repeatedly in advanced networking engagements.
A Sample of the Advanced Networking Providers We Evaluate
RLM is vendor neutral. These are among 600+ providers in our evaluation set — inclusion here is not an endorsement, and we are paid by the provider you choose, not by any provider in particular. How that works →
Where Do You Want to Start With Dedicated Internet Access?
Start with a no-cost conversation with an RLM network advisor — vendor neutral, no agenda, just clarity on the right path forward for your environment.
Talk to a Network Advisor