Most internet quote requests are one line: a dedicated circuit at a given speed for a given address. The quotes that come back differ on everything the request left out, so the comparison turns into a week of email. A request that answers the carrier's questions before they are asked comes back faster, cheaper and in a form you can line up.
The details below are what a carrier's engineer needs to price a circuit. Write them down once per site and reuse them for every request.
The seven details every request needs
- The speed you need now and the speed you expect to need in three years, so the carrier quotes a circuit that can be upgraded without a new install.
- Whether this line is primary or backup, and how much downtime the site can tolerate. A backup line can be a cheaper access type on a different path; a primary line for a site that cannot stop needs a repair commitment in writing.
- The static IP addresses you need, as a block size. A /29 gives five usable addresses and a /28 gives thirteen. Changing the block after install is a change order.
- Whether the site needs to reach other sites or a data center privately, which decides between plain internet, a private circuit and SD-WAN, and changes the price by a lot.
- Whether the carrier should manage the router or you will supply your own. Managed routers add a monthly fee and a second support path.
- The install deadline: the move-in date, the lease date or the day the old contract ends. Fiber installs commonly take sixty to ninety days and longer where construction is needed, so the deadline decides which carriers can bid at all.
- Building access: where the line enters the building, who the landlord's contact is, and whether a carrier already has fiber in the building. A carrier that is already on site skips construction, and that is usually the lowest quote.
Ask for the same fields back
Tell every carrier the form you want the quote in: speed down and up, access type, IP block, whether their fiber is already in the building, any construction cost, the monthly charge, the one-time charges, the term and the repair time commitment. Carriers will fill in a short list when it is given to them. Quotes that arrive in the same shape can be compared in a minute, and the one that leaves a field blank has told you something too.
Ask for the same term from everyone, usually thirty-six months, and ask separately what a shorter term costs. Put the total over the term next to each quote, not the monthly price, because a low monthly charge with a construction fee is often the expensive one.
Send it to the right carriers
For a single site, the carriers with fiber already in or near the building are the ones to ask. For many sites, send one request with every address on it and ask for a per-site price list, so carriers that cover most of the footprint can bid on it as a whole. Keep the request to three or four carriers; more than that and the replies arrive on different days in different shapes, and the comparison slips again.
Keep the request with the order
The request, the quotes and the signed order belong together, because the first bill should match the order and the order should match the quote. When the circuit renews in three years, the same request with the speeds updated is most of the next one.
DemarcLabs asks these questions when a request is opened, so the carrier gets a complete request the first time. Quotes are entered on the same fields, compared side by side with the total over the term, and the signed order and the first bill are checked against the quote that was chosen.