What Exactly is an SLA?

A Service Level Agreement (SLA) is a formal contract between your business and your internet provider that defines exactly what level of service you can expect. It covers uptime guarantees, repair response times, and what compensation you receive if the provider fails to meet those commitments.

For businesses across Belfast and Northern Ireland, understanding SLAs is critical. When your internet goes down, the difference between a 4-hour fix and a 4-day fix can mean thousands of pounds in lost revenue. An SLA is your safety net — a legally binding promise that your provider will act quickly when things go wrong.

What Does an Internet SLA Cover?

A comprehensive business internet SLA typically includes several key components:

1. Uptime Guarantee

This is the headline figure — the percentage of time your connection is guaranteed to be operational. Common tiers include:

• 99.9% uptime: Allows up to 8.76 hours of downtime per year
• 99.95% uptime: Allows up to 4.38 hours of downtime per year
• 99.99% uptime: Allows just 52.6 minutes of downtime per year

These numbers sound similar, but the difference is significant. A 99.9% SLA permits nearly nine hours of annual downtime. A 99.99% SLA permits less than an hour. For businesses running VoIP phone systems from Yealink or Avaya, even brief outages mean missed calls and lost customers.

2. Mean Time to Repair (MTTR)

This defines how quickly your provider must respond to and resolve faults. Typical MTTR commitments include:

• Leased lines: 4-6 hour fix time, 24/7/365
• Business broadband: Next business day (if any SLA exists)
• Standard broadband: No guaranteed repair time at all

The repair time is arguably more important than the uptime percentage. When your connection fails on a Monday morning and your entire team is unable to work, knowing that an engineer will be on-site within hours — not days — is invaluable.

3. Compensation Clauses

If your provider breaches the SLA, you are entitled to compensation. This is usually structured as service credits — a percentage reduction on your monthly bill for each hour of downtime beyond the SLA threshold. Some providers offer:

• Pro-rata credits for each hour of excess downtime
• Fixed penalty payments for missed repair targets
• Full month credits if uptime falls below a critical threshold

4. Guaranteed Bandwidth

Unlike standard broadband, SLA-backed connections guarantee the speed you are paying for. A 100Mbps leased line delivers 100Mbps — symmetrically, consistently, and without contention from other users.

Why Standard Broadband Has No SLA

Standard residential and many basic business broadband packages operate on a "best-effort" basis. This means your provider will try to deliver a good service, but makes no contractual commitment to do so. There is no guaranteed uptime, no guaranteed repair time, and no compensation when things go wrong.

We explain this in detail in our guide on why broadband has no SLA, but the core issue is cost. Providing guaranteed service requires dedicated infrastructure, proactive monitoring, and priority engineering resources — all of which cost significantly more than shared broadband infrastructure.

SLA-Backed Connections: What Are Your Options?

If your business needs guaranteed connectivity, several options come with robust SLAs:

• Fibre Leased Lines: The gold standard. Dedicated fibre with 99.95%+ uptime and 4-6 hour repair. Speeds from 10Mbps to 10Gbps
• EFM (Ethernet First Mile): A more affordable alternative using bonded copper pairs with SLA backing
• MPLS Networks: For multi-site businesses needing guaranteed performance between locations
• SD-WAN with SLA: Combines multiple connections with intelligent failover and SLA commitments

For a detailed comparison, read our guide on guaranteed uptime vs best-effort broadband.

How to Read an Internet SLA

When evaluating an SLA, pay attention to these details:

• Exclusions: Most SLAs exclude scheduled maintenance windows and force majeure events
• Measurement method: How is uptime measured? Some providers only count outages reported through their support system
• Claim process: How do you claim compensation? Some providers make this deliberately difficult
• Scope: Does the SLA cover the full circuit, or just the provider's network? Issues in the "last mile" may not be covered

What SLA Does Your Business Need?

The right SLA depends on how critical internet connectivity is to your operations. Consider these scenarios:

• Retail businesses processing card payments need high uptime — no internet means no sales
• Professional services (solicitors, accountants) relying on cloud software need consistent access
• Healthcare providers accessing patient records need guaranteed availability
• Hospitality businesses with VoIP phones and booking systems cannot afford extended outages

For many Belfast businesses, the cost of a single day's downtime far exceeds the annual premium for an SLA-backed connection. At Drakos Systems, we help businesses across Northern Ireland calculate the true cost of downtime and match them with the right level of connectivity and SLA protection.

Drakos Systems: SLA-Backed Connectivity for Northern Ireland

We provide a full range of business connectivity solutions with clear, transparent SLAs. Whether you need a dedicated leased line with 4-hour repair or a resilient dual-connection setup with automatic failover using Cisco or Ubiquiti networking equipment, we design solutions that keep your business online.

Every connection we supply comes with proactive monitoring, a named account manager, and clear documentation of your SLA commitments. No hidden exclusions, no complicated claims processes — just reliable connectivity backed by real guarantees.