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Dedicated Internet Access: A Guaranteed Gig Costs About $774 — Is the SLA Worth It?
Updated on October 28, 2026
9 min read
Last updated October 18, 2026 · Prices and service-level terms below were read from each provider’s own pages on October 18, 2026. Dedicated internet is quoted by address, so use these numbers as a benchmark, not a bill.
Dedicated internet access (DIA) is a business internet connection with bandwidth reserved for one company and an uptime promise in writing. In October 2026, Lumen’s published rates work out to about $270 a month for 50 Mbps and $774 for 1 Gbps, roughly five to ten times the price of a shared business fiber gig. You are paying for the guarantee, not the speed.
TL;DR: dedicated internet access, October 2026
- What it is: a private, symmetrical connection whose speed is not shared with the neighbors, backed by a service-level agreement (SLA).
- Published price benchmark: Lumen lists 1 Gbps from $1.06 an hour, about $774 for a full month. Most providers quote by phone.
- Uptime promises: AT&T and Verizon promise 100% availability with credits; Lumen and Comcast promise 99.99%.
- The catch: an SLA pays credits, not lost revenue. A missed hour usually earns about one day of service credit.
- Who needs it: call centers, clinics, multi-site firms and anyone whose sales stop when the internet does. Most small offices do better with shared fiber plus a backup line.
What is dedicated internet access?
Dedicated internet access is a business connection that reserves a fixed amount of bandwidth for one customer, end to end from your building to the provider’s backbone. A 500 Mbps DIA circuit delivers 500 Mbps up and down at 4 p.m. on a Monday, because no one else is on it.
Definition: dedicated vs. shared internet
Shared (broadband) internet splits a neighborhood or building’s capacity among many customers and advertises “up to” speeds. Dedicated internet access reserves capacity for one customer and guarantees the speed, uptime and repair time in a contract called a service-level agreement.
Providers sell the same idea under different names: dedicated internet, DIA, Ethernet internet, dedicated fiber or “internet dedicated.” Underneath, the product is the same: a private circuit, symmetrical speed, a static IP block and an SLA.
How much does dedicated internet access cost in 2026?
Most carriers do not publish dedicated internet access prices; they quote each address. Lumen is the exception. Its Intelligent Internet service lists hourly rates, which give a rare public benchmark:
| Lumen dedicated speed | Published rate | Full month (730 hours) | Lumen says it’s best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Backup, 1 Mbps | from $0.10/hour | about $73 | Redundancy and data backup |
| 50 Mbps | from $0.37/hour | about $270 | Small businesses, 1 to 20 employees |
| 100 Mbps | from $0.47/hour | about $343 | Small to medium businesses |
| 1 Gbps | from $1.06/hour | about $774 | Medium to large businesses |
| 10 Gbps | from $3.93/hour | about $2,869 | Large, data-heavy operations |
Source: Lumen Intelligent Internet pricing page, read October 18, 2026. Monthly figures are our math (hourly rate × 730 hours). Lumen says the service needs a Lumen Fabric Port at a location it has already enabled; the page does not list port or install costs. Lumen also offers a fixed monthly rate for committed bandwidth.
Your own dedicated internet access quote depends on three things more than speed: whether the provider’s fiber is already lit in your building, how far a new lateral has to be built, and the contract term. A building that is “on-net” can be quoted and installed in weeks. An off-net building can carry construction charges and a much longer wait.
Dedicated internet access vs. business fiber: what the extra money buys
A shared business fiber gig costs $69.99 to $144 a month in October 2026, as our business fiber internet comparison shows. Lumen’s dedicated gig benchmark is about $774. Here is what that difference buys.
| Question | Shared business fiber | Dedicated internet access |
|---|---|---|
| Speed promise | “Up to,” best effort | Guaranteed, symmetrical |
| Uptime promise | None in writing | 99.99% to 100%, with credits |
| Repair time | Standard queue | Committed, e.g. 4 hours at Verizon |
| Price | Published, $50 to $285 a month | Quoted; about $270 to $2,900 at Lumen’s rates |
| Install time | Days where fiber is lit | About 30 days and up; longer with construction |
| Contract | Often none | Usually a term contract |
The honest read: shared fiber is usually fast enough. Dedicated internet access earns its price when consistency and accountability matter more than raw speed, such as a call center whose phones run over the connection or a clinic whose records live in the cloud.
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Dedicated internet access providers compared
Every national carrier sells dedicated internet access. What differs is the written promise. These are the terms each provider publishes:
| Provider | Speeds | Uptime promise | Other published terms | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AT&T Dedicated Internet | 10 Mbps to 1 Tbps, symmetrical | 100% uptime guarantee | Credit can be requested for any outage, “even for a second”; 24/7 proactive monitoring | Quote |
| Verizon Internet Dedicated | Quoted by site | 100% network availability | 4-hour time to repair; 45 ms U.S. latency; 99.5% packet delivery | Quote |
| Lumen Intelligent Internet | 1 Mbps to 100 Gbps | 99.99% availability | Activate or change speed online in minutes at enabled locations | From $0.37/hour |
| Comcast Business Dedicated Internet | Up to 200 Mbps over cable; up to 400 Gbps over fiber | 99.99% network uptime | Cable-delivered installs can take as little as 30 days | Quote |
Sources: provider product pages and SLA documents, read October 18, 2026. Comcast terms are from its February 26, 2025 product announcement.
Comcast’s cable-delivered option is worth a look for smaller sites. It brings a dedicated internet access SLA to buildings that have coax but no fiber, at lower speeds, and it installs faster than a new fiber lateral.
What does a dedicated internet SLA actually guarantee?
The SLA is the reason to buy dedicated internet access, so read it before you sign. Verizon’s published Internet Dedicated SLA is a good example of how these documents work:
- Availability: Verizon promises the network will be available 100% of the time. For each cumulative hour of outage in a month, you can claim one day’s pro-rated monthly charge as a credit.
- You must report it: an outage only counts if you open a trouble ticket within four hours of learning about it, and you must request the credit within 30 days.
- Time to repair: the target is four hours from ticket to restoration.
- Performance: average U.S. latency of 45 ms or less and 99.5% packet delivery, measured between Verizon’s own routers, not to your desk.
- Exclusions: scheduled maintenance and problems you or your equipment cause do not count.
Notice what is missing: the SLA does not pay for lost sales. On a $774 monthly circuit, a three-hour outage under a one-day-per-hour formula returns less than $80 in credit. That is why serious buyers still add a second, diverse connection.
What do 99.99% and 100% uptime mean in minutes?
Uptime percentages sound alike but allow very different amounts of downtime. In a 30-day month:
- 99.9% allows about 43 minutes of downtime.
- 99.99% allows about 4 minutes.
- 100% means any outage at all qualifies for a credit, as AT&T and Verizon promise.
None of these numbers is a forecast. They are the point at which the provider owes you money.
Who actually needs dedicated internet access?
Dedicated internet access pays off when downtime or slowdowns cost more than the price gap. Good fits include:
- Call centers and sales floors where every agent’s phone runs over the connection. See our guide to business phone service for the phone side.
- Healthcare, legal and finance offices running cloud records, telehealth or trading tools all day.
- Multi-site companies connecting branches to a data center or cloud, often with SD-WAN on top.
- Video, engineering and design firms moving very large files to the cloud.
- Buildings without good shared fiber, where a dedicated circuit is the only way to get symmetrical speed.
Most small offices, shops and restaurants are better served by shared fiber plus a 5G or fixed-wireless backup. Our business internet guide covers both.
What buyers like and dislike about dedicated internet access
What buyers like: speed that does not sag at peak hours, upload that matches download, a named support path when something breaks, and a contract they can hold the provider to.
What frustrates them: the wait. Dedicated internet access installs are measured in weeks, and a building that needs new construction can take months. The second complaint is pricing opacity; two quotes for the same address can differ widely, which is why getting more than one matters.
How to buy dedicated internet access in 6 steps
- Size the bandwidth. Count users, phones and cloud apps at peak, then add room for two years of growth.
- Ask who is on-net. Providers with fiber already lit in your building can quote lower and install faster.
- Get at least two quotes for the same speed and term, including install and any construction charges.
- Read the SLA. Compare uptime percentage, time to repair, how credits are calculated and how to claim them.
- Plan a diverse backup. A second provider on a different path covers what the SLA does not.
- Start the order early. Allow at least 30 to 90 days before a move-in or cutover date.
Frequently asked questions
How much does dedicated internet access cost?
Most providers quote dedicated internet access by address. Lumen publishes rates that work out to about $270 a month for 50 Mbps, $343 for 100 Mbps and $774 for 1 Gbps if used all month. The service also requires a Lumen Fabric Port.
What is the difference between dedicated internet and broadband?
Broadband shares capacity among many customers and promises “up to” speeds. Dedicated internet access reserves symmetrical bandwidth for one business and guarantees uptime and repair times in a service-level agreement.
How long does it take to install dedicated internet access?
Expect about 30 days at minimum. Comcast says its cable-delivered dedicated internet can install in as little as 30 days; fiber builds that need construction can take several months.
Is dedicated internet access worth it for a small business?
Usually not. Unless downtime directly stops revenue, a shared business fiber plan plus a backup connection costs far less and covers most of the same risk.
Does an SLA cover lost revenue during an outage?
No. SLA credits are a share of your monthly bill. Verizon, for example, credits one day’s pro-rated charge per hour of outage, which is small compared with lost sales.
Bottom line on dedicated internet access
Dedicated internet access buys certainty: reserved symmetrical bandwidth and an uptime promise in writing, at several times the price of shared fiber. Buy it when an outage stops your business, get two quotes, read the SLA closely, and keep a backup line either way.
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Sources
- Lumen Intelligent Internet pricing and FAQ (read Oct 18, 2026)
- AT&T Dedicated Internet (read Oct 18, 2026)
- Verizon Internet Dedicated Services SLA (read Oct 18, 2026)
- Comcast Business Dedicated Internet announcement (Feb 26, 2025)
Talk to a business internet specialist
For quotes on business fiber, backup connections, phones and IT at your location, call (866) 328-7973 or use BOX by TechGuidance to pull every serviceable connection for your address.
Are you a residential customer?
Shopping for home internet instead? Compare home internet plans at your address or call our residential team at (844) 437-9527.
Keep going
- Business fiber internet prices compared
- Business phone service prices and the billing trap
- Business internet providers compared: fiber, cable and fixed wireless
- What business internet costs, by provider and speed
- How to find every business internet provider at your address
- AT&T copper line shutdown: what businesses replace them with
