Schools, visual FX design studios, and fast food restaurants. On the face of it, these organisations don’t have much in common. Yet, increasingly, every kind of business is seeing the value of high quality, resilient Internet access.

Ed Wenman, owner and managing director of Telair, a Brisbane-based provider of voice, data and managed services to businesses around Australia, has seen this trend develop first hand.

“Our customer base is incredibly varied, from single premises takeaways to 50-plus site businesses. Traditionally, voice was the majority of our sales but data has come to dominate. Customers still want voice services but on top of the data services; it’s the data that’s most important.”

The demand for data services has seen more businesses look into procuring business-grade internet on fibre. It’s no longer just for the largest companies and enterprises. “There is a wide diversity of organisations buying fibre services as they respond to changing priorities”, said Ed. “Schools, creative services and professional services firms are among those taking up large links to cater to increasing bandwidth needs and deliver a positive customer and employee experience.”

Premium services at a price point for everyone

Telair is one of Telstra’s largest sellers of Telstra Wholesale Business Internet (WBI). WBI is a complete, ready-made internet service with a wide variety of bandwidths to suit different business uses.

“We are agnostic about products and technology because we want to deliver the best outcome for the customer, but WBI hits a sweet spot for us in many cases,” said Ed. “It offers a great fibre service at a price point that makes it attractive for any business. We can offer various classes of service and be very competitive, even at the premium end of the scale.”

Ed says customers expect a certain standard from their connection, and these expectations have translated into more organisations considering premium services.

“Different customers have different needs, and we always present options they can choose from. However, we generally preference premium classes of service. It ensures the customer receives the experience they expect.”

WBI has a range of classes of service, including contended and uncontended service levels, enabling Telair to put together the right options for each customer. It’s not just for the benefit of the end customer.

“Having uncontended options available makes it easier for us to deliver the right solution and meet customer expectations,” said Ed. “We have built our brand on delivering what we promise, so service and the quality of the experience we provide is vital. ”

Greater reach and adding flexibility

With more organisations considering business-grade internet services, the ability to reach all this demand is crucial for Telair.

“We serve customers around the country, we have multiple data centres, and we have points of presence in every state so the footprint of a network is an important consideration for us,” said Ed.

“Telstra’s footprint is unrivalled. We also find Telstra’s zoning means more sites are included on class 1 routes, meaning we can offer more customers the premium services.”

Telstra Wholesale Business Internet also offers Telair the opportunity to add a new access for its SD-WAN offerings.

“We sell a lot of multi-site SD-WAN,” said Ed. “WBI, with all the benefits of different classes of service and price points, combined with its footprint, is a useful option for our SD-WAN packages.”

Making high quality fibre an easy choice

As small and medium sized businesses digitally transform their operations and the experiences they offer their customers and employees, fibre will factor in more sales conversations.

“We are in a position now where business-grade fibre is a no-brainer for most businesses. Look at it in terms of the productivity benefits. The cost of a fibre service is often a small fraction of an organisation’s salary base, yet the business benefits of a rock solid, fast connection are huge. WBI helps us to make it an easy choice for our customers.”