A business internet quote is usually one page: speed, monthly rate, term length. The contract behind it is thirty, and almost everything that will eventually frustrate you lives in those other twenty-nine.
These are the nine questions worth asking before you sign anything. None of them are hostile. A good rep will have answers ready.
1. Is this address already on-net?
"On-net" means fiber is physically in the building. "Near-net" means it's close and the carrier will build the last stretch — which can mean permits, boring under a parking lot, and a landlord negotiation.
The quote looks identical either way. The install timeline does not: on-net is typically two to four weeks, near-net can run four to six months. Ask which one you are, in writing.
2. What's the construction cost if it exceeds the allowance?
Most carriers waive build costs up to a threshold. Past it, you're billed the overage — occasionally thousands, discovered after you've already cancelled your old circuit. Ask for the allowance figure and what happens above it.
3. What is the rate in month thirty-seven?
A three-year term at an attractive rate frequently rolls into a month-to-month renewal at a materially higher one. The escalator is in the contract; it is essentially never on the quote.
Ask for the post-term rate and the notice window for non-renewal. Then put that notice date in a calendar the day you sign.
4. Is this dedicated or shared?
Dedicated Internet Access gives you symmetrical, guaranteed capacity — 500 Mbps down and 500 Mbps up, contended with nobody. Business broadband is shared with neighbours and usually asymmetrical.
Broadband is often the correct choice for a small office, and it's far cheaper. But it should be a decision you made, not one you discovered during a video call at 2pm on a Tuesday.
5. What does the SLA actually pay?
Most SLAs credit a prorated portion of your monthly fee for downtime beyond the guarantee. On a $600 circuit, a four-hour outage might return twenty dollars.
More importantly: credits are almost always claim-based. You have to open a ticket, reference the outage, and request the credit inside a filing window. Nobody applies it automatically. Ask what the window is.
6. What's the mean time to repair, and who's dispatching?
Four-hour MTTR is a meaningfully different product from next-business-day. Ask specifically whether repair is handled by the carrier's own technicians or subcontracted — and whether that changes the response window.
7. Is my backup circuit on a diverse path?
Two circuits from two providers sound redundant. If both run through the same conduit into your building, one backhoe takes out both.
True diversity means separate physical paths and ideally separate entry points. Ask the question explicitly. It's the difference between redundancy and the appearance of it.
8. What are the early termination fees?
Standard is the remaining monthly recurring charge for the balance of the term — sometimes plus unamortised construction costs. On a five-year deal signed in year one, that's a serious number.
Also ask what happens if you move. Some contracts transfer to a new address; others treat relocation as termination.
9. What's the total first-year cost?
Not the monthly rate. The total: installation, equipment, router rental, static IP block, taxes and regulatory recovery fees. That last category is genuinely surprising to most buyers — it can add ten percent or more and never appears on the quote.
The pattern
None of this is a carrier being dishonest. It's an industry where the quote sheet is a marketing document and the contract is the actual product, and where reps are compensated on signed terms rather than on whether the circuit fit.
Ask all nine before you sign, get the answers in email, and you'll have removed most of the ways a fiber contract turns into a grievance.
If you'd rather not run that process yourself — that's the job we do. We're carrier-neutral, so we compare the same requirement across every provider serving your address and translate the fine print before it becomes your problem.
Written by the team at DelaxCom LLC, an independent IT and telecom consultancy in Johnston, Iowa. Questions about your own setup? Call 515-298-7392 or email contact@delaxcom.com.