General Decision Making Points

 

Both of the ISP's-Sprint / Bell South have different specifications . But before I discuss with their specifications let me specify the major point we need to consider to make a decision on ISP. There are a number of factors to consider when making a decision about which Internet Service Provider is best for us and can meet our needs.

Most Important is that we should be familiar what exactly we want, what our needs are. This is the most important factor before we look for ISP and its specifications.

We always have confusions what we need to know before applying for ISP, what should we ask the Internet Service Providers to satisfy our needs and purpose. So to make these questions simple I start now with  the basic point to be considered in making decisions on selection of ISP.

  1. Price - Price will most likely be our first concern, so we should make sure that we investigate any advertised price for hidden charges or restrictions. These restrictions may include time limits per day, account usage restricted to certain hours during the day, price valid for first month only, etc.

  2. Local telephone number - Make sure that we do not have to dial a long-distance number: we don't want to have to pay extra phone charges for our Internet access.

  3. Start-up- A customer-centered Internet Service Provider will make our access to the Internet an easy and trouble-free experience. We should be able to get a disk of preconfigured software with clearly and simply written instructions for loading the software onto our hard drive. In your software package, the minimum you should have is an email program, a web browser, dial-in software, FTP and Telnet software.

  4. Access Speed - Faster is always better. We always need to consider the Upload and the Download speeds. This Upload and download speed issue depends on the usage and needs.

  5. Capacity - Busy signals are very annoying. Internet Service Providers add additional lines as their user base increases, and we will want to know about their "User Ratio". This term is one of the most misleading in the business, but we should not hear from the Internet Service Provider that they have a user to modem line ratio more than 10:1. 10:1 is fairly standard across the board.

  6. Competitive Rates - Most accounts are set up so that we pay a set monthly fee for a predetermined number of hours per month (i e.$30 for 90 hours/month). However, most Internet Service Providers have a variety of packages available, based on your anticipated usage level.

  7. Technical Support - Another area our Internet Service Provider should have adequate and user-friendly resources in their technical support.

  8. Duration of Account - We should find out what is the minimum contract time for an account, and if they offer any form of a "test" account, where we can try out their services. Most Internet Service Providers have discounts if we purchase a full year's account, but before we make such a commitment, we should make sure to check what sort of refund policy they may have. If we want to terminate our account after a month or two, how will they work out the refund?

  9. Extra Goodies — ISP's vary quite a bit in what sort of extras come with their service. Below is a short list of services that may be of interest to us.

                  Email - At the very least, our ISP should provide us with an email account at no extra charge. Several providers offer multiple email accounts (3 or more depending on the ISP and service plan you subscribe to.)

                  Web Hosting — Many ISPs offer subscribers space to put up a web page as part of their basic benefits. If we don’t plan to put up our own website, this probably isn’t a major consideration, but it is one of the perks we may want to have in the future.

                  Other Online Services — In addition to Internet Service Providers, there are also Online Service Providers.