Hotel Internet costs set to rise: Are you ready?

A story came out this week that many Internet Service Providers in Canada (Shaw and Primus being the latest) are set to raise rates for heavy bandwidth usage. While the stories are primarily focused on home users, it also has implications for business users like yourself. We’ve written about the challenge hotels have meeting bandwidth needs before, and ISPs are facing the same challenges. The reality is that bandwidth costs money. With more and more mobile devices and online movies, demands–and costs–are increasing rapidly. Here’s what you need to do to minimize cost increases and keep your customers happy during the shift:

1. Talk to your ISP. Find out what type of package you have and if your rates will be going up. There are often charges for extra bandwidth usage–find out where those kick in. Let us know so that we can help.
2. Ensure your network is managed. If you’re a Liveport customer, this is already covered. A non-managed network allows all users unlimited
   bandwidth and downloading, while a managed network puts in place some restrictions to share bandwidth fairly.
3. Remind your guests when checking in that Torrent downloads are not allowed and that they could be blocked from the network. If they are blocked, they can call out 24/7 support number to get back online.

As always, we’re here to help if you have any questions.

– The Liveport Team