Back in May of this year (2015), we moved into our first physical office in Oklahoma City (OKC). This was a huge first step for us as a bootstrap startup as we've never received funding which wasn't the result of our own income generated. We were excited to finally have a dedicated space of our for the business, rather than working from home but little did we know, the struggle to find a quality connection was our biggest hurdle in situating ourselves in an ideal location.
Finding a signal
Our first mistake we made was in assuming the fast connection we had at home, would be easy to find for an office space. Surely ISPs (Internet Service Providers) would provide a faster and better connection to business offices? We were wrong. Companies like AT&T wanted to sell you their T1 line which was "really fast" (quoted from a sales rep) at 1Mbps and only $370.00 /month. My smart phone's data plan is faster, and it's communicating with a tower MILES away! The only other ISP in the OKC metro area is Cox Communications, but even they want to try to sell you 10Mbps as if that were worthwhile. The real kicker is that all of these plans start at nearly $70.00 a month, which is what I pay for 150Mbps at home! We certainly understand there's a better SLA in business packages, but it's not worth the $274.00 price tag to get similar speeds to what we have at home.
What about data-centers?
If Oklahoma is known for anything, it's our nasty Tornado weather we get two times a year. These cyclones drop down and destroy lives & business, making it a less than ideal location to house data-centers. In fact, almost anyone needing servers will typically drive 3 hours south to Dallas meaning there are only a handful of companies in Oklahoma City and Tulsa who offer data plans or even collocation. We considered the ability to run a line from the data-center to the office for a faster connection, but the real problem is that the providers in our area mainly work with banks and the oil industry - leaving smaller data companies high and dry. We were quoted nearly $40.00 per Mbps, so this quickly became the wrong option for our budget.
What we settled for...
In the end, we decided the speed that Cox Communications offered would give us the best shot at a decent connection. We're on 100 down and 20 up and paying nearly $300 a month for it, which while not ideal for the budget, has given us the best shot of multiple work stations connection to over half a dozen data centers around the globe. It took Cox nearly 2 months to setup (the office space we selected was a new building) and finally gave us a chance to perform a realistic speed comparison between AT&T, using my phone's data plan, and finally Cox. All speed tests below are tested against Speedtest.net's Softlayer server located in Dallas, TX (using an outside location often provides a much more realistic speed).
AT&T Wifi
Verizon 4G (Wifi hotspot)
Cox Business
Google Fiber, you're our only hope!
We seriously considered moving the company to Kansas City, as it's the closest location to us, where Google's business plans are offered. Not only do they offer a full gigabit, but it's only $100 and even includes a dedicated IP address for a small fee. Those would cost us thousands of dollars to setup with our current providers.
We really don't want to move the company or uproot our staff's lives in the name of a faster data plan as we really enjoy living in Oklahoma City due to its incredibly startup friendly community. Our city has even been listed as the #1 city to launch a startup by CNN. One of our staff members lives in the United Kingdom, near the heart of London, and would be paying more per week for a desk in a crowded co-working space, than for what we pay for an entire office at a monthly rate.
Everything is in your hands, Google Fiber. We can only patiently wait and cheer progress forward. Together with the wonderful technology and development communities such as Techlahoma, we can build a wonderful tech hub out of our great city.