By: John Shepler
When choosing a business location, consider “lit buildings” for their exceptional connectivity. These buildings are already equipped with fiber optic internet infrastructure, offering a solution to bandwidth concerns.
What Does “Lit Building” Mean?
“Lit building” signifies a building pre-wired for fiber optic internet and potentially point-to-point bandwidth services. The term “lit” references the laser beams used to transmit digital signals at high speeds through fiber optic cables.
Advantages of Fiber Lit Buildings
In today’s business landscape, seamless electronic communication is essential, from small enterprises to large corporations. If your operations depend on computers, connectivity is crucial. Even the smallest businesses require internet access for credit card processing, online orders, email communication, and website management. Operating offline can hinder business growth.
However, securing reliable internet access can be challenging when moving into a new facility. Standalone buildings or being the first tenant often means bearing the cost and effort of installing internet service, including cabling, termination equipment setup, and provider coordination.
Lit buildings eliminate these challenges because the costly and time-consuming infrastructure is already in place. Simply contract with the building’s fiber optic provider, connect your router to their termination point, and your business is online.
Services Offered in Lit Buildings
Fiber optic connections surpass traditional landlines and cable internet by offering practically limitless bandwidth. While technical limitations exist, advancements in modulation and multiplexing techniques continually increase the bandwidth capacity of a single fiber strand, with speeds of 10 Gbps readily available and 100 Gbps becoming increasingly common. For larger businesses requiring even higher bandwidth, fiber optic cables can combine hundreds of individual strands.
The services available in lit buildings are comprehensive. Ethernet over Fiber, directly compatible with most Local Area Networks (LANs), is a popular choice offering scalable bandwidth from 10 Mbps to 10 Gbps and beyond. Many providers grant users portal access for on-demand bandwidth adjustments. Traditional Synchronous Optical Networking (SONET) services like OC3 to OC48 might also be available and can be demultiplexed to provide traditional T1 line or Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) PRI phone service. Additionally, Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) trunking for Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and dedicated cloud connections are typically standard offerings.
Why Not Opt for Fiber?
Fiber optic internet provides a transparent and future-proof bandwidth solution that effortlessly scales with business growth. The primary drawback is the cost, which can be prohibitive for small businesses and limited budgets. In such cases, business cable broadband offers a more budget-friendly option. If cable infrastructure is available at your location, you can access shared bandwidth up to 1000 Mbps at a competitive price, often without installation charges. Importantly, cable internet availability is independent of whether a building is equipped for fiber.
When considering relocation, prioritize your current and future bandwidth needs. Before committing to a lease, verify the availability of lit building fiber optic services and cable broadband.
