“Corporate internet” is the label most Bangladeshi providers use for business connectivity. It tells you who the offer is for, not how the connection behaves. Two offers can share the same label and headline speed and still behave very differently at 11 a.m. on a working day. What decides that is written, or left out, in the agreement: whether capacity is committed to your service or shared, what the committed upstream and downstream rates are, whether local and international traffic are split, and how service levels are defined.
This article explains those properties, where the common confusion comes from, and how to compare two offers properly.
The problem with the label
Providers use “corporate”, “business” and “enterprise” to signal the audience. In practice the same words are attached to anything from a shared broadband package with a business support line to a connection with capacity reserved for one site. None of them is a technical term. If an offer says only “corporate internet, 100 Mbps”, you do not yet know what you are buying.
The useful question is not “is this corporate internet?” but “what does this agreement commit to, and what happens when the network is busy or something fails?”
Committed or shared: the property that matters most
A committed information rate (CIR) is the capacity the provider contracts to make available to your service. The provider’s network behind it may still use shared aggregation and infrastructure. What makes the service dedicated is that contention on that infrastructure should not reduce the contracted rate within the defined service scope. The committed rate is therefore the reference you plan around, not a best case.
A shared connection describes a maximum speed. The provider’s capacity behind it is shared by many customers on the assumption that they will not all use their full speed at once. That is a reasonable engineering trade-off for many sites, and it is why shared broadband is cheaper. The cost is that throughput can fall when many users are active at the same time, and the agreement usually does not say by how much.
A headline speed and a committed rate are different numbers. Ask which one you are being quoted.
What “dedicated” does not mean
Dedicated does not mean that every cable and router between your office and the internet carries only your traffic. It also cannot control how distant servers, cloud platforms or other networks perform. It means the provider contracts the committed rate to your service within its defined service scope, as written in your agreement. Be wary of any offer that implies more than that.
Upload is a business requirement now
Shared consumer-style packages are often asymmetric: upload is a fraction of download. That made sense when offices mostly downloaded. Today a typical office uploads constantly: video calls, file synchronisation, backups to a data center or cloud, remote users reaching office systems, and SaaS applications that send as much as they receive.
Two different properties are often confused. A symmetric service has the same contracted rate upstream and downstream. Full duplex means a link can transmit in both directions at the same time; it describes how the link operates, not whether the two rates are equal. Not every dedicated service is symmetric, so ask for the committed upstream and downstream rates separately, in writing.
Local and international: why many offers carry two numbers
Bangladeshi networks exchange much of their domestic traffic at national internet exchanges. BDIX, the first internet exchange point in Bangladesh, was established so that its members could exchange and route local internet traffic locally. APNIC reported in March 2025 that the country had eight operational internet exchange points, all licensed by the BTRC as National Internet Exchanges. Traffic to the rest of the world leaves through international gateways and submarine and terrestrial links.
Because local and international capacity are bought and engineered differently, many packages advertise two numbers: a larger “local” or “BDIX” figure and a smaller international one. For many businesses the international figure matters more than it first appears: many cloud platforms, SaaS tools and overseas destinations are reached over international paths. Some content does stay domestic, because content delivery networks, caches, locally hosted services and domestic peering can serve it from inside the country. Which figure matters more depends on where your applications actually run.
A connection with one committed rate and no split between local and international traffic removes that ambiguity: the capacity you plan around applies to all destinations, up to the edge of the provider’s service domain.
Dedicated and shared, property by property
| Property | Shared business broadband, typically | Dedicated connection, typically |
|---|---|---|
| Capacity | Shared among many users; described as a maximum | A contracted committed rate (1:1) that contention should not reduce within the service scope |
| Busy-hour behaviour | Throughput can fall when many users are active | The committed rate is the planning reference |
| Upstream and downstream | Upstream often a fraction of downstream | Often symmetric; verify both committed rates separately |
| Local and international | Often divided into separate allowances | One committed rate for all traffic |
| Access to the building | Often a single path; ask | Defined in the design; ask how many paths, and where they go |
| Service levels | Often general or undefined | Defined in the agreement for the service |
| Addressing and routing | Public addressing and routing options are often limited | Often includes static public addressing; ask whether BGP is available if you need it |
| Who notices a fault | Often the customer, unless the provider monitors the service | Ask whether the provider monitors the service and contacts you |
When shared is enough, and when it is not
A dedicated connection is not automatically the right answer. Shared broadband can be sensible when:
- the site is small, and the business can tolerate slow periods;
- the work does not depend on real-time applications such as voice or video;
- a short outage is an inconvenience, not a business event;
- there is no need for defined commitments, static addressing or routing control.
A committed connection is usually justified when one or more of these is true:
- revenue, operations or customer service stop when the connection stops;
- staff rely on cloud, SaaS or video throughout the working day;
- upstream capacity matters: backups, file sync, remote access to office systems;
- you need written service levels for procurement, audit or customers;
- you need static public addresses, or to announce your own IP space with BGP;
- the site is one of several that must work as one network.
How to compare two offers properly
Headline speed and monthly price are not comparable on their own. Put each offer into the same frame before you compare:
- Committed or maximum? Ask for the word “committed” and the CIR in writing.
- Contention. If it is shared, ask what the provider assumes about sharing at busy times. If it is dedicated, ask them to state 1:1.
- Upstream and downstream. Ask for both committed rates. Are they equal (symmetric)?
- Split. Is there a separate local or BDIX figure? If so, what is the international figure, and which one applies to your cloud applications?
- Path to the building. One path or two? If two, do they enter the building separately and terminate at different points in the provider’s network, or share part of the route?
- Handoff and responsibility. What equipment does the provider install, and where does its responsibility end?
- Monitoring. Does the provider monitor the connection and contact you when it fails, or do you have to report the fault?
- Service levels. Is there a written SLA? How is availability defined, measured and excluded? A percentage without those definitions is not a commitment. How to read an internet SLA explains what to look for.
- Addressing. Are static public IPv4 addresses included? Is BGP with your own address space and ASN possible if you need it?
If an offer cannot answer these questions in writing, the lower price is buying uncertainty.
What to take into the conversation
Before you speak to any provider, write down what the site actually needs: how many people, which applications, how much the business loses when the connection is down, whether you need a second path, and whether the site will connect to a data center, a cloud environment or other offices. If it will, connecting an office to a data center or cloud covers the path choices.
Sources. BDIX, About us (BDIX as the first IXP in Bangladesh and its purpose). APNIC Blog, Bridging connectivity and collaboration gaps in Bangladesh, 26 March 2025 (eight operational IXPs licensed by BTRC as National Internet Exchanges). General descriptions of shared and dedicated services describe common market practice, not any named provider.