[Discuss] Recommendation on Gigabit ISP for small business

[Rich Braun]

Hsuan-Yeh Chang <hsuanyeh at gmail.com> asked:
> Can anyone recommend an ISP (optical fiber) for 1-10 Gbps
> capability, particularly servicing small businesses in the
> Boston metro area?

Cogent (www.cogentco.com) and XO (www.xo.com) were the two I used most
recently, serving sites in Kendall Square and Waltham.  XO is better, Cogent
is cheaper. Any of the big national providers (search on "Internet Traffic
Report") with a presence in the Boston area are able and willing to provide
service, if you're in an urban-core location and willing to put up with weeks
of phone calls from hungry sales-critters.

If you need to serve that much bandwidth, though, it's usually (much) less
expensive to locate the equipment in an established carrier-hotel data center
than at a "small business in the Boston metro area".  The local-loop and
installation charges to bring fiber out to a yet-to-be-served location can be
substantial.

>  If you can tell the price range, it is very much appreciated.  Thanks
> in advance!

100-megabit service was in the $500-700/mo range circa 2009, probably not a
lot different today.  GigE and above are by custom price quote.

-rich