BPW's Pricing Explained
Holland BPW is offering two pricing tiers for their gigabit service, $85/month & $220/month. Let’s discuss the difference.
What’s the same?
Both plans offer the exact same gigabit internet service. This is important. The “Enhanced” plan is the same internet service, but with extras. You don’t get faster speeds on the Enhanced plan. Neither plan has a data cap*.
Both plans have free standard installation. This typically means BPW brings service into the basement of a building. Depending on the wiring inside the building, you may have to pay extra to get it from that entry location to your office/apartment (or have someone else do it).
Both plans require a 3-year commitment. This helps BPW recoup their costs. They may reduce to 1 year if you already have fiber in your building. If this is a sticking point for you, please contact BPW.
What’s different?
So what does the higher-priced plan offer? A few things that may be of interest to some businesses.
Static IP Address. Static IP addresses are sometimes needed for phone systems or VPNs. Contact your IT person to ask if you need it.
Service Level Agreement (SLA). An SLA gives guarantees about the reliability of the service, and credits your account if they don’t meet that level of service. It is a commitment by BPW of what you can expect. You can read their SLA and see if it is valuable to you.
Priority Restoration and Enhanced Reliability. BPW will restore Enhanced customers first in the event of an outage. BPW will monitor these customers closely to ensure they’re getting the best service possible and avoid downtime.
Proactive Communication. BPW is committed to communicating before issues arise as much as possible. We hope they do this for all customers, but they are only guaranteeing it for Enhanced customers to start.
Which tier is right for me?
If you want a great connection and top speed, both are great. If you can live without static IP and the service guarantees (SLA) from the higher tier, then stick with the lower one. Otherwise, spring for the higher one. Either way, this should be much better and cheaper than anything you have today.
Too bad a static IP is not available ala carte, without having to pay almost 3 times as much for additional features one might not need.
why can’t you cut the speed down to make it affordable, not many people can afford 85 for internet, nor need gigabyte speed. a price below 40 would help a lot
edd, as I understand it, the plan for this first rollout is to provide a service that nobody else offers: gigabit. They keep it simple by having only one option. Later, they could definitely have other pricing tiers. Going into neighborhoods, that may be necessary.
We’re on E. 26 St. and can’t wait to get fiber. We have Comcast Basic cable plan now, $76 per month, going up yearly. Netflix is $8 too. We don’t watch TV so that’s wasted $$$. Just want fiber Internet! Hate the Comcast monopoly. Love our public utility!