What Does Business Fiber Internet Cost in NYC?

01 / Capacity

Dedicated and shared fiber: what capacity are you buying?

Fiber describes the transmission medium. It does not establish whether the service’s capacity is dedicated or shared.

Dedicated access provides committed capacity across a defined service boundary. Ask where that commitment begins and ends, and whether it applies equally to uploads and downloads.

Shared access allows customers to use a common pool of capacity. It can perform consistently when sufficient capacity is available. As simultaneous demand approaches the shared limit, throughput and delay can change. ^[2]

Ask providers:

• Is the quoted rate committed capacity or a maximum?
• What capacity is available in each direction?
• Where is capacity shared?
• What performance commitments apply during busy periods?

A dedicated access circuit does not make the entire Internet exclusive to your business. Other networks and destinations remain part of the path.

Shared service can suit an office whose requirements it meets reliably. Dedicated capacity may be more valuable for sustained transfers, critical operations or applications that need predictable access performance. Read the dedicated-versus-shared guide for a fuller comparison.

02 / Performance

Bandwidth and latency affect different parts of the experience

Bandwidth describes the rate at which a connection can carry data. Latency describes delay across a measured path. Jitter is variation in that delay; packet loss means packets fail to reach their destination. ^[3]

Large transfers need capacity. Calls, remote desktops and interactive applications also depend on timely, consistent delivery.

A higher-capacity connection can reduce waiting caused by congestion and shorten transfers when the rest of the path can support them. It does not make signals travel faster over the same route or remove an application’s processing time. ^[4]

For a useful comparison, ask providers for latency measurements to destinations your business actually uses. Confirm where each test starts, where it ends and whether the result describes a quiet moment or performance over time.

A low number without those details is difficult to evaluate. The bandwidth planning guide covers capacity estimates.

03 / Network paths

Why peering belongs in the comparison

Your Internet provider must exchange traffic with the networks hosting the services you use.

Peering allows networks to exchange traffic through an interconnection. It can take place at a public Internet exchange or through a private interconnection. Transit is a service through which another network carries traffic toward destinations beyond the provider’s own network. ^[5]

Appropriate peering can shorten paths and reduce reliance on intermediary networks for particular destinations. Relevant connections include:

• Content delivery networks, or CDNs: networks that deliver content and support public service endpoints.
• Large cloud operators, sometimes called hyperscalers: networks supporting cloud infrastructure and applications.

Stealth’s published Dedicated Internet specifications identify direct links to Amazon, Google, Microsoft and other providers. ^[1]

The practical buying question is: How does this network reach the services our business depends on, and what measurements support that answer?

A peer count or a short traceroute is not a performance guarantee. The route used, interconnection capacity, congestion and destination all matter. Public Internet peering also does not, by itself, provide a private connection to your cloud environment. ^{[4] [10]}

04 / Measured observations

Measurements you can inspect

Stealth publishes three measurement pages that buyers can examine before ordering.

These measurements originate from Stealth’s monitoring location at 32 Avenue of the Americas in New York City. They describe observations from that location, rather than a test from every customer’s office. ^{[6] [7] [8]}

When inspecting the pages:

• Choose relevant destinations. Look for the applications or resolver services your business uses.
• Read the measurement method. Compare the same protocols, endpoints and time periods.
• Examine the history. Look at consistency and changes, alongside the latest reading.
• Check timestamps and gaps. An older successful sample is not a current observation; missing data is not zero latency.
• Keep the application separate. A public endpoint may be a CDN edge. A successful network connection does not establish that login, meetings, file transfers or AI processing are working normally. ^{[6] [7]}

For DNS, the published lookup test sends an example.com A query over UDP port 53. Results may reflect cached answers and do not test every hostname or encrypted DNS method. ^[8]

Use these observations to ask better questions about the service. The applicable agreement separately defines contractual measurements and remedies.

05 / Total cost

Compare the full cost over the same period

Request an itemized proposal and identify what is included.

For comparison, add the recurring charges over a common period to the one-time charges and customer-side costs needed to make each option usable.

If a promotional price changes during that period, calculate each portion separately. Compare the minimum contractual commitment as well; a low monthly figure can accompany a longer obligation.

Stealth’s published pricing distinguishes eligible connected-building online installation offers from standard quoted installation charges. Nearby locations remain subject to a survey, and special construction or changed terms require separate approval. Confirm which conditions apply to your office. ^[1]

Stealth does not offer Wi-Fi. Include your own office network and its management in the budget, even when the Internet service itself has no separate provider-equipment charge. For installation planning, read what happens during a fiber installation.

06 / Service terms

Read the SLA alongside the price

A service level agreement describes commitments, measurement rules, exclusions and remedies. The details determine what protection the agreement provides.

Ask:

• Which circuit, equipment and endpoints are covered?
• Are availability, latency, loss or other performance measures included?
• When does an incident begin counting?
• Who must be notified, and how?
• What credits or cancellation rights apply?
• What are the claim deadlines and exclusions?

Support response time and restoration time are different commitments. A billing credit also does not replace lost working time or a tested backup plan. ^[9] Read our Internet SLA guide for more on the terms.

For AI-specific coverage, review the AI connectivity SLA and confirm whether it is included in the signed order. Public measurements alone do not establish coverage or entitlement to a remedy.

07 / The decision

Match the investment to the work

Start with your busiest periods, the services employees depend on and the consequences of interruption.

Ask whether the proposed connection can support that work, whether the office equipment can use its capacity and whether the provider supplies enough information to assess performance.

A useful comparison should leave you able to explain:

• What capacity the business is buying.
• How the provider reaches important destinations.
• What the available measurements show.
• What installation and equipment are required.
• What the business will pay and commit to.
• What happens if the service falls short.

Next steps

Review pricing, inspect performance and check your address

Inspect AI connectivity · Inspect business-platform connectivity · Inspect DNS measurements