The salesperson offers a business plan, and the figure is two to three times the home plan. The speed? Often exactly the same.
A fair question arises: what's the difference for. The answer lies in four things not printed on the promotional banner, and you won't need all of them.
What actually differs
| Home plan | Business plan | |
|---|---|---|
| Download speed | Often the same | Often the same |
| Upload speed | Much lower | Close to or equal to download |
| Resolution guarantee | None | Yes, in writing |
| Support queue | General | Separate |
| Static public IP | Rarely available | Available |
| Business use | Generally prohibited | Permitted |
| Price | Rp 300k – 700k | Rp 800k – 3m |
The top row explains the confusion. The big advertised number is almost always the download figure, and there the two plan types genuinely are similar.
Upload speed, the most underestimated factor
Home plans generally give far less upload than download, an arrangement that makes sense for watching video, but becomes a bottleneck once business activity begins.
What demands heavy upload:
- Video meetings, which send as much as they receive
- Security cameras monitored from off-site
- Cloud data backups
- Uploading large files such as designs or video
- An online till constantly transmitting transactions
If two or more of those apply to you, upload speed is a legitimate reason to move to a business plan, and often the only one you'll genuinely feel day to day.
Reading the service commitment
An SLA is a written commitment about service levels. It usually contains two numbers, and the second is far more useful than the first.
The availability percentage sounds reassuring, but 99.5 per cent over a year still leaves nearly two days of downtime without breaching any promise.
The resolution deadline matters far more. A promise of "resolved within four working hours" means a morning fault is fixed before closing, not the day after tomorrow. This is what genuinely distinguishes a business plan in daily life.
Ask what happens if the promise isn't met. An SLA without consequences is just a nice sentence. The usual remedy is a pro-rata bill credit, and it almost always has to be requested, it isn't given automatically. Your rights as a customer are covered in the guide to customer rights when internet is slow.
When a static public IP is genuinely needed
Many home subscriptions in Indonesia don't provide a real public address, customers share one via CGNAT. As a result, nobody can reach your network from outside, whatever your settings.
This only becomes a problem when something does need reaching from outside:
| Need | Public IP required? |
|---|---|
| Staff browsing the internet | No |
| Online till and video meetings | No |
| Monitoring CCTV via the manufacturer's app | No |
| Monitoring CCTV directly without a cloud | Yes |
| VPN into the office from outside | Yes |
| Running your own server | Yes |
Note the two camera rows. If you use the manufacturer's own app, the connection runs through their cloud and no public address is needed. Both approaches are discussed in the port forwarding guide.
On permitted use
This is the part most often ignored and most likely to have consequences.
Almost every home plan contains a clause that the service is for personal use only. Using it on business premises breaches that clause and gives the provider grounds to terminate unilaterally.
The risk rises sharply if you share or sell that access to others, customers, boarding house residents, or neighbours. The legal boundaries are discussed in the RT RW net guide, and their application to voucher selling in the guide to setting up Wi-Fi vouchers.
Determining the speed you need
Calculate from the number of people using it simultaneously at peak, not from floor area:
- Staff: around 3 Mbps per person for general office work
- Video meetings: 2 to 4 Mbps per participant, in each direction
- Visitors: 1 to 2 Mbps per active device
- Security cameras: 1 to 4 Mbps per camera if monitored remotely
Add them up, then add about a third as headroom. A more detailed method is in the venue Wi-Fi capacity guide, and network layout for a small office in the Wi-Fi for small offices guide.
Five questions before signing
What's the upload speed?
Not download. Ask for the figure in writing, not stated verbally.
How quickly are faults promised to be resolved?
And what happens if they aren't. "As soon as possible" isn't an answer.
Is there a fair use limit?
If so, what's the allowance and what speed applies once it's exceeded.
How long is the contract?
And what's the penalty for early termination. A two-year contract with a heavy penalty locks you to a provider that may not satisfy you.
What costs sit outside the monthly bill?
Installation, equipment rental, and cable-run charges for longer distances. The line items most often missed are in the guide to guest Wi-Fi costs for businesses.
When a home plan is already adequate
Not every business needs a business plan. A home plan makes sense when all of the following hold:
- Fewer than five people use it simultaneously
- Nothing needs reaching from outside
- A day without internet doesn't stop income
- No access is shared with or sold to anyone else
A small shop using the internet only for the till and the occasional message doesn't need to pay three times as much. What's more appropriate in that situation is a simple backup, phone tethering, and a battery for network equipment as discussed in the guide to a UPS for your router.
Frequently asked questions
Are business plans genuinely faster?
Often the speed figure is identical to a home plan costing a third as much. What differs is upload speed, guaranteed fault handling, and permission to use it for business. Speed isn't the main reason to buy a business plan.
What is an SLA and what figure is reasonable?
An SLA is a written service level commitment, usually containing an availability percentage and a fault resolution deadline. For a small business, a resolution guarantee measured in hours is worth far more than an impressive-sounding availability figure.
When does a business genuinely need a static public IP?
When something needs to be reached from outside: remotely monitored security cameras, your own server, or a VPN into the office. If all your needs point outward to the internet, a public IP brings no benefit at all.
Can I use a home plan on business premises?
Technically yes, and many do. But almost every home plan contains a clause that the service is for personal use only, which gives the provider grounds to cut you off if commercial use is discovered.
