Fixed wireless access provides a seamless, high-speed backup internet connection to help keep your business online.
As pandemic restrictions continue, businesses that adapted their operations to keep their revenue flowing are having to rely more on the internet than perhaps ever before. Whether it was to ensure their employees could collaborate with each other seamlessly from home or to amplify their e-commerce efforts, there’s no doubt that internet reliability has been crucial to business continuity during the lockdown—and a crucial part of internet reliability is having a secondary connection that kicks in should anything happen to your primary one.
You can (and maybe should) get a secondary connection from a second internet provider
While your primary connection’s provider may offer a backup connection, you can get one from another provider, and there are good reasons to do so. Having both your primary and backup connections through a single provider could be risky, particularly a local one where you’re at higher risk of having both your connections go down if they have a major infrastructural issue. However, if your backup connection is through a national provider, there’s redundancy in their network to help ensure uptime.
Your primary connection is wired, so your backup connection should be wireless
In addition to having a secondary provider, one of the best ways to ensure your backup connection is reliable is for it to be wireless. Fixed wireless access (FWA) is one such option. Often used as a primary connection for temporary sites or for locations too remote for a wired connection, FWA uses transmitters on a cell tower to send high-speed internet signals to your business location. So, if your primary connection is severed because of a storm, construction accident or other incident, FWA seamlessly takes over, helping to ensure the aspects of your business that rely on the internet, from your website (if you’re hosting it yourself) to your POS machines to the video conferences you have with clients, stay online. Even with all your employees working from home, FWA ensures they can access important files and applications stored on your server back at the office. And since that server will require a static IP address for your employees to access it remotely, especially via a VPN, it’s ideal if your FWA service comes with an affordable offer on static IPs.
FWA should connect you to the internet—and protect you from it as well
Even more of a threat to your business than a severed internet connection is cybercrime, particularly malware attacks, including ransomware (where access to your data is blocked until you pay the attacker a ransom), Trojan horse attacks (seemingly legitimate software that provides the attacker access to your system) and command-and-control attacks (which allows the attacker to send commands to your system for a variety of nefarious purposes). A malware attack is often the result of a phishing scheme, which tricks an employee into clicking on a link to a site that launches the attack. Enhanced DNS (domain name server) security leverages a continuously updated list of sites known to be malicious, automatically blocking access to them. This is a feature any business-grade internet service should offer, and FWA is no exception.
Regardless of how quickly lockdown restrictions are lifted, the experience has left an indelible mark on the business world, and arguably a positive one. Because so many businesses had to start using digital technologies in ways they hadn’t before—and so quickly—the value of those technologies, for remote work and work on-site, has become more obvious than ever. And that includes the value of continuous, reliable and secure internet connectivity, which FWA can provide.
To learn about Fixed Wireless Access from Rogers, contact a Rogers Sales Representative today.