Architel’s customer base has grown considerably over the years and as a result we have a decent statistical sample size to help us figure out how to make our business more efficient and as a result our client’s happier. Based on our latest findings from this data we are considering offering free T1 internet access to our clients.
Reason No. 1: Our latest discovery centered around the fact that our clients use more than 15 different ISPs for internet access. During any week we are dealing with one or more ISPs, specifically their a) abuse team (mostly spam related issues), b) billing department, c) DNS support group and d) service interruption line. If you have ever tried to calls your ISP you know what a pain this can be ~ multiple that by more than 100 clients and you would have a full-time job.
Reason No. 2: More than 80% of our clients use our online backup service (perhaps because it is free), but those backups require the internet to work well. More and more providers are starting to throttle connections and we are seeing more and more backups taking longer and longer. We have augmented our backup solution to complete an on-site backup first and then a remote, online backup, but we began to consider the cost of provisioning a T1 to each client and realized the cost was fairly reasonable.

So we ask this question, “If we were to offer you, our client, a free T1 to the Internet would you be interested? You would have to pay the cost of the local loop ($300/mo. + tax) but we would cover the cost of the internet access. Interested?”