Broadband aggregation is a way of buying broadband internet for many locations through one provider, which sources the connections from many local cable, fiber, DSL and wireless carriers and delivers them under one contract, one bill and one support desk. It is aimed at businesses with lots of sites, such as retail chains, restaurants, clinics and branch networks, where dealing with a different internet service provider (ISP) in each town becomes a job in itself. The term is used in other senses too: some vendors use it for combining several links at one site, which is more often called bonding, and carriers use “broadband aggregation” for the routers that collect subscriber connections in their own networks. This entry covers the procurement and management service.
At a glance
- One provider buys broadband from many local carriers and manages it for you across all your sites.
- You get one contract, one consolidated bill and one support contact, instead of one per carrier.
- Performance at each site still depends on the local carrier and access technology; aggregation doesn’t change the underlying service.
- Aggregation providers can often supply a second carrier or medium for backup at each site.
- It is frequently sold alongside SD-WAN, managed routers or cellular backup.
What problem it solves
A business with fifty or five hundred locations might deal with dozens of different internet providers, each with its own ordering process, contract terms, invoices, portal and support line. Opening a new site means researching who serves the address and negotiating from scratch. When a store goes offline, someone has to work out which carrier to call and push the ticket through. Bills arrive in different formats on different dates, and nobody is sure every circuit is still in use.
Broadband aggregation hands that work to one provider. It checks which carriers serve each address, orders and installs the service, pays the carriers and sends you one bill, and handles outages with the carrier on your behalf. For lean IT teams, that can free a surprising amount of time and make costs easier to see.
How it works
Sourcing. The provider holds agreements with many carriers, from national cable and telephone companies to small local fiber and wireless operators. For each of your addresses, it checks availability and pricing and proposes options, often including a backup on a different carrier or medium for carrier diversity.
Ordering and installation. The provider places orders with the carriers, coordinates installation dates and tracks progress across all sites.
Billing. Carriers bill the provider, which bills you on one invoice, often with per-site detail that feeds telecom expense management.
Support. You report problems to the provider’s support desk, which troubleshoots, opens tickets with the carrier and escalates. Many providers monitor circuits and open tickets proactively.
Add-ons. Many providers also offer managed routers or firewalls, SD-WAN, cellular or fixed wireless backup, and static IP addresses.
When it matters for buyers
- When you have many sites in many markets. The more carriers involved, the more aggregation saves in administration.
- When rolling out new locations quickly. A provider with existing carrier relationships can quote and order faster.
- When consolidating vendors. It is a common step in reducing telecom vendor sprawl.
- When adding backup links. Sourcing a second carrier per site is easier through a provider that works with many.
- When reviewing SLAs. The underlying broadband is still best effort; check what the provider can commit to and what depends on the carrier.
Questions to ask vendors
- Which carriers do you work with in our markets, and how many of our addresses can you serve?
- Do you resell carrier services directly, or through other wholesalers?
- What do you commit to for installation dates, repair times and escalation, given the underlying service is best effort?
- Do you monitor our circuits and open tickets before we notice a problem?
- What does the bill look like, and can it break costs out by site?
- How do contract terms work per site, and what happens when we close a location?
- Can you confirm that primary and backup links use different carriers and paths?
How it differs from Aggregator
An aggregator is a type of company: a provider that buys network services from many carriers and resells them as one service. Broadband aggregation is one service such a company provides, focused on broadband for many sites. Aggregators often handle other services too, such as dedicated internet access, Ethernet circuits, Type II circuits and cellular plans, and some providers sell broadband aggregation without describing themselves as aggregators. Our network aggregation page covers how to evaluate these providers.
Problems this helps with
- Managing dozens of local internet providers across our locations
- Every new site means finding and contracting a new ISP
- Too many internet bills and support numbers to keep track of
- Need a backup connection from a different carrier at every store
