Business internet: dedicated versus shared access, SLAs, and the real cost of downtime
A shared fibre line with an eight-hour fix window is not a business line. How to tell which one you have and price the difference honestly.
The difference between home fibre and dedicated business access is not speed, it is the contract. Shared access is best-efforts over a contended aggregation with no committed fix time. Dedicated access is a symmetric circuit with committed availability, a fix clock, and credits when it is missed - at several multiples the price, which is why it must be chosen deliberately rather than by default.
The decision reduces to one number: what an hour of downtime costs you. A card terminal that cannot authorise, a clinic that cannot open records, a warehouse that cannot print labels. If that figure exceeds the price difference, shared access is the expensive option.
Plan data checked against verified resources on 2026-09-12 20:27 UTC · verified search data for demand figures.
Real searches this guide answers
| Query | Searches/month | Difficulty |
|---|---|---|
| du office near me | 8,100 | 26 |
| du office | 6,600 | 27 |
| du business login | 4,400 | 39 |
| du business | 3,600 | 29 |
| du office academic city | 1,600 | 19 |
| eib business online | 1,600 | 22 |
| du business customer care number 24 hours | 1,300 | 37 |
| du head office dubai | 1,000 | 25 |
| nearest du office | 1,000 | 27 |
| du main office dubai | 1,000 | 30 |
| du business customer care | 1,000 | 36 |
| du business customer care number | 880 | 32 |
From verified search-demand data. These are the phrasings this page is written to answer, not a tag cloud.
Business internet - what decides it
Redundancy is cheaper than an SLA. Most small offices get resilience from a wireless unit as failover on the router rather than a second fibre circuit. Accept that its performance is not guaranteed - which is precisely what you want from a backup.
Business internet vs home internet: what you actually pay for
Steps
- Size the upload, not the download: cloud backups, POS traffic and video calls live there.
- Ask for dedicated internet access (DIA) when you need a committed rate and a contracted repair time.
- Request a static IP block and confirm whether router/CPE is rented or purchased.
- Multi-site? Compare a managed WAN/leased-line link against over-the-top VPN before you buy bandwidth twice.
- Send us the user count and applications and we will price home-business versus DIA side by side.
q
q
This section is written to answer: business; office; sla; dia; leased; corporate; enterprise.
Source: verified resources · full guide
Guest Wi-Fi, IoT VLANs and smart-home safety
Steps
- Enable guest network with client isolation for visitors; keep the main SSID hidden from them.
- Put cameras/plugs on the 2.4 GHz IoT SSID and disable their cloud P2P if you do not use it.
- Change default camera passwords and update firmware; these are the usual entry point.
- For home offices, separate the work laptop onto its own SSID or VLAN.
- Turn off WPS on the router - it is a shortcut attackers use.
q
This section is written to answer: guest; iot; camera; security; vlan; wps.
Source: verified resources · full guide
Moving home with du: relocation, not cancellation
Steps
- Check fibre availability at the new address before you book (we can run this for you in a minute).
- Raise a relocation request in the app or via 155 with both account addresses.
- Book a date; a technician installs at the new place and collects the old kit.
- Ask for the gap policy - if the new site is ready, the cut can be same-week.
- Update Emirates ID/address details afterwards so billing and the contract stay clean.
q
q
This section is written to answer: relocation; move; shift; new home; install.
Source: verified resources · full guide
Plans that fit this situation
| Plan | From | Speed | Contract | Included | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| du Business Internet / Dedicated Internet Access | quote per address | shared or DIA, SLA-backed | 12-36 months | Static IP, router included | Get my price |
| du Business Complete / Enterprise mobile | quote per address | pooled data, multi-SIM | 12-24 months | Fleet + roaming + device plans | Get my price |
| du Business Fixed Line / Cloud PBX / Internet Calling Pack | AED 30 /mo | voice + numbers + call recording | 12 months | add-on also sold to consumers (Internet Calling Pack) | Get my price |
| Plan | Monthly | Months | Total over term | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| du Business Internet / Dedicated Internet Access | price rendered per address - we verify it live for you | Get my price | ||
| du Business Complete / Enterprise mobile | price rendered per address - we verify it live for you | Get my price | ||
| du Business Fixed Line / Cloud PBX / Internet Calling Pack | AED 30 | 12 | AED 360 | Verify total |
Figures are arithmetic on the published tier price; they exclude installation, device instalments and any promo credit specific to your account. Confirm the number for your address before you sign.
Checklist before you contact support
- Confirm whether the quote is symmetric or contention-shared
- Get availability and fix-clock figures in writing
- Ask for the credit schedule, not whether credits exist
- Put the card terminal on the backup path
- Separate guest wifi from operations on its own network
- Log downtime yourself; credits are claimed, not offered
If you need to escalate
- If the committed time passes, ask for a supervisor and for the written response, naming the missed commitment and requesting the credit schedule.
- Only then move to the formal complaint route with the whole thread attached. Regulators ask what the operator said, so the operator answer is your document.
- Take the evidence, not the adjective: one wired test at the time the fault happens, with the date and the figure, plus the indicator state. That is what changes the queue you are put in.
- Ask for a fault record and a reference number in writing, and ask what the committed resolution time is - then do not close the ticket when someone calls to say it is done.
The same ladder is used for every business case on this site, because the order is what changes the outcome - not the words you happen to use.
What to send us on WhatsApp
For "Business internet: dedicated versus shared access, SLAs" specifically, lead with the symptom and the address - the rest is context a reader of this guide already has.
- Your emirate and building/unit (not just the area name)
- Whether you are on fibre or a wireless unit, and the router model if you know it
- Your account number and whether you are inside a contract term
- A photo of the router lights, and your last bill if money is the question
- What is broken or what you want, in one line
Frequently asked questions
Does a small office need a dedicated line?
What must an SLA actually specify?
Can I use a home plan for business?
Is a wireless backup actually useful?
Adjacent cases worth ruling out
A surprising share of tickets are filed under the wrong symptom. Skim these before you commit to a diagnosis - each links to the full checklist.
Nine times out of ten a dead du line is the optical signal, not your Wi-Fi. Look at the router: a solid or blinking red LOS/light means no signal is reaching your home, so the fix is at the …
Router red light: what each colour actually meansA red or orange LOS/optical light means the fibre signal is not arriving; a red WAN light means the signal arrives but authentication to du failed; a red internet light with a green WAN usua…
du internet slow: prove it before you change anythingSpeed complaints split into two very different problems: the line is genuinely slow (then du owes you a fix) or only Wi-Fi in one room is slow (then a router or mesh change fixes it, and du …
Wi-Fi not working while the internet is fineIf the router shows a green internet light but your phone will not join, the fault is local: band steering, a full DHCP lease table, a crowded channel or a device stuck on a saved password f…
Internet keeps disconnecting every few minutesRegular drops have three common causes: a marginal fibre/optical link, a router overheating in a cabinet, or a device roaming between two access points. The pattern tells you which - a drop …
How to run a speed test that du will acceptOne number from a random website will not move a fault ticket. A result taken over Ethernet, on the du network, logged through the du app or Speedtest with the test ID saved, is evidence an …
du APN settings that actually matterAlmost every APN problem is a wrong or missing access point name on a phone or a 5G router after a SIM swap. For du the national APN is usually left at its default; adding a manual APN is ma…
Keep reading
How this page was built
Plan names, prices and offer wording are read from verified resources, checked on 2026-09-12 20:27 UTC. Procedures follow the du Help Center articles named under each section. Demand figures - the search volumes in the tables - come from a licensed UAE search-demand dataset, which is where the "real searches" phrasings are taken from. Where a number depends on your address, your wall box or your contract start, the page says a quote is needed instead of estimating it. Nothing on this page is scraped from an aggregator or copied from another comparison site. Applied to Business internet: dedicated versus shared access, SLAs.
Where to check it yourself
- The operator's own plan and support pages - the text your order form was written from
These pages belong to the operator and the regulator - open them side by side with your own bill or app before acting on anything here.
Verify this yourself in two minutes
- Prices and inclusions: the operator's own plan page for your emirate, then the same figure on the order form you signed.
- Your line state: the My du app - Account > Services shows suspension, bar, data cap and contract end.
- Faults in your area: My du app > Support > Outage status, or 155 from a du mobile (free).
- Anything regulatory (billing disputes, escalation): TDRA - your complaint must cite the ticket number du gave you, dated.
If a number on this page and a number in your app disagree, the app wins - and we would like to know: WhatsApp us the screenshot and we correct the page.