Ethernet Pricing Ohio

Ethernet transport is priced per circuit and per mile, not per site, so these ranges move more than internet pricing does. A short circuit between two lit downtown Columbus buildings sits at the bottom of them. Cleveland to Cincinnati is roughly 250 miles and sits well above. The useful thing about Ohio is that the three largest cities are close enough together that a statewide network is a metro-scale transport problem rather than a long haul one, which is not true in most states this site covers.

What Ethernet services actually are

Ethernet transport is not internet access. It is a private connection between two or more of your own locations, or between your site and a data centre or cloud provider. No public internet is involved unless you add it.

• Point to point Ethernet, sometimes called E-Line. One site to one other site. Simple and predictable.
• Multipoint Ethernet, or E-LAN. Several sites on one virtual switch, so every location can reach every other.
• Ethernet to a data centre or cloud on-ramp, which is how most direct cloud connections are delivered.
• Dark fiber, where you light the strands yourself. Highest cost to start, lowest cost per megabit at scale.

Pricing is driven by distance between the endpoints and by whether both ends are already on the carrier's network. A short metro circuit between two lit buildings is dramatically cheaper than the same bandwidth between two towns.

What moves the price

• Lit building or new build. The single biggest variable, and Ohio's commercial density means more buildings are already lit here than in most states we cover.
• How many carriers can actually reach you. Two credible options in a building move the price more than any negotiating tactic, and in Ohio's larger metros three or four is realistic.
• Which metro. Columbus, Cleveland and Cincinnati have real competitive pressure. Canton has considerably less, and the gap between them is worth more than any discount you can negotiate.
• Which incumbent. Greater Cincinnati is altafiber and the rest of the state is AT&T, and the two do not price the same way or absorb construction the same way.
• Whether a municipal network reaches you. Published municipal pricing changes what every other carrier will quote inside that footprint.
• Contract term. Sixty months beats thirty six meaningfully, and carriers absorb far more construction cost on a longer term.
• Whether you need an SLA. Dropping from dedicated to broadband remains the largest single cost reduction available, where the business can tolerate it.

How this compares to buying internet at each site

Those are internet prices, shown for scale. Ethernet transport is bought per circuit and per mile rather than per site, so the comparison that matters is whether your traffic between sites justifies a private path at all. For a lot of multi-site businesses, SD-WAN over ordinary internet now does the job for less.

MPLS vs SD-WAN over fiber

Pricing by metro

Metro matters less than the building, but it is not nothing. Dense metro cores have more carriers competing, which is where the real savings come from.

Common questions