Every business has a moment when the internet picks the worst possible time to slow down. A large upload stalls near the finish. A customer call starts to break up. A video meeting freezes mid-sentence. Most of the time nothing is broken. The connection is shared, and everyone on it got busy at once. Dedicated Internet Access is built so that moment never reaches your business.
By Mitchell Griffith, Director of Engineering & Planning, Fiber Network
- Dedicated Internet Access (DIA) reserves the full bandwidth on your connection for your business alone, so upload and download speeds stay the same at 8 a.m., at noon, and at 4:55 p.m.
- Fiber alone does not guarantee dedicated bandwidth. Many fiber services use PON, which splits one connection among several customers.
- The gap between a 99.9% and a 99.99% uptime commitment is almost eight hours of allowed downtime per year, roughly one full workday.
- Aureon DIA delivers symmetrical speeds up to 100 Gbps, a 99.99% uptime SLA, built-in DDoS mitigation, and 24/7/365 monitoring by a Midwest-based Network Operations Center, over 60,000+ miles of fiber.
Maximum downtime per year allowed by a 99.99% uptime SLA (calculated on a 365-day year)
What is Dedicated Internet Access?
Dedicated Internet Access (DIA) is a business internet connection where the bandwidth on your line is reserved for your business alone. It delivers the same upload and download speed at every hour of the day, and it is typically backed by a service level agreement (SLA) that guarantees uptime and repair times. DIA runs over a private circuit from your building to the provider’s network, then out to the public internet.
Think of it like grain storage. Shared internet works like a community elevator: plenty of room most of the year, then a long line at harvest when every farm shows up at once. DIA is your own bin. Harvest can be as busy as it wants, and your capacity is still sitting there waiting for you. For your business, that means an end-of-day upload finishes at the same speed it would first thing in the morning.
How does DIA work?
Every connection has a last stretch between the provider’s network and your building. The difference between DIA and shared broadband lives right there. Switch between the two views below.
How a dedicated connection works
One private fiber circuit runs from the Aureon network to your building. Nobody else is on it.
- Bandwidth
- Yours alone
- Upload speed
- Matches download
- Busy hours
- No slowdown
- Commitment
- Written SLA for uptime and repair
Watch a shared connection slow down
Drag the slider through a workday and compare a shared 1 Gbps plan with a 1 Gbps dedicated circuit. The shared line is an illustration of how congestion typically builds when neighbors get busy. Real results vary by provider, location, and how many customers share the segment. The dedicated line stays where it is, because nobody else is on it.
Mid-afternoon: file transfers, video meetings, and cloud syncs start to stack up across the segment.
Illustrative model for explanation only. It is not a measurement of any specific provider’s network.
DIA vs. business broadband: what is the difference?
The difference between DIA and business broadband comes down to who else is using your capacity and what the provider promises in writing. Broadband is built to be affordable for many customers at once. DIA is built to be predictable for one customer at a time.
| Feature | Dedicated Internet Access | Shared business broadband |
|---|---|---|
| Bandwidth | Reserved for one customer | Shared across a segment |
| Upload speed | Symmetrical, equal to download | Often lower than download |
| Peak-hour performance | Consistent | Can slow when neighbors get busy |
| Uptime commitment | Written SLA with defined credits (99.99% on Aureon DIA) | Usually best effort |
| Support | Proactive monitoring, priority response | Standard support queue |
| Static IPs and routing | Included or available, with custom routing options | Limited or extra cost |
| Typical fit | VoIP, cloud apps, multi-site networks, anything where an hour offline is expensive | Smaller offices with light, flexible internet needs |
What does an uptime SLA really mean?
An SLA, or service level agreement, is the provider’s written promise about how available your connection will be and how fast problems get fixed, with service credits if it falls short. It works a lot like an insurance policy: the value is in the specific terms. Uptime percentages all look alike until you turn them into hours.
| Uptime commitment | Allowed downtime per year | Allowed downtime per month |
|---|---|---|
| 99% | About 3 days, 15 hours | About 7 hours, 18 minutes |
| 99.9% | About 8 hours, 46 minutes | About 43 minutes |
| 99.99% | About 53 minutes | About 4 minutes, 23 seconds |
Calculated on a 365-day year and an average 30.4-day month.
What that downtime costs depends on your business. ITIC’s hourly cost of downtime research found that for about 90% of mid-size and large organizations, a single hour of downtime costs more than $300,000. ITIC also notes that micro businesses with 1 to 20 employees typically see far smaller hourly losses. The honest answer is your own number, so enter it below.
Uptime SLA translator
At 99.99%, the maximum allowed downtime is less than one hour per year.
Five things people get wrong about DIA
Each card holds a common myth. Flip it to see what is actually true.
How much does DIA cost?
DIA pricing depends on five main factors: the bandwidth you commit to, how close your building is to existing fiber, whether construction is needed to reach you, the contract term, and any added protection such as redundant paths. That is why providers quote DIA per location. A building already on the network usually costs less to serve than one that needs new fiber built to its door.
Here is what a typical DIA quote contains. Select any line to see what it means.
Get a DIA quote built for your locations
Does your business need DIA?
DIA is the right fit when internet slowdowns or outages have a direct cost. That usually means businesses running VoIP or a contact center, depending on cloud applications, moving large files or backups, connecting several locations, or answering to customers and regulators for uptime. Banks, clinics, manufacturers, schools, and government offices often land here. Answer six quick questions to see where you stand.
Do I need DIA? A six-question check
Answer all six questions to see your result.
What happens during a DIA installation?
Installation timelines vary with your location, your distance from existing fiber, and what the site needs. The steps themselves follow the same order every time.
How Aureon delivers DIA in Iowa
Aureon has been building network infrastructure in Iowa since 1989, when the company began as Iowa Network Services. Today that network spans 60,000+ miles of fiber, and national wireless carriers rely on it to reach their own tower sites. Aureon Dedicated Internet Access runs on that same carrier-grade, 100% fiber network, delivered over private Ethernet circuits with symmetrical speeds up to 100 Gbps.
Every circuit is backed by a 99.99% uptime SLA and includes built-in DDoS mitigation, which detects and absorbs volumetric attacks before they reach your network. A Midwest-based Network Operations Center monitors the network 24/7/365, and customers get direct access to engineers who know Iowa’s network. Engineers also design custom routing and redundancy for multi-site businesses and disaster recovery plans. DIA pairs naturally with SD-WAN, managed firewall, and unified communications, since call quality depends on the connection underneath it.
Aureon DIA is available to businesses across Iowa, from Des Moines and Cedar Rapids to smaller communities where fiber options are harder to find.
See if your Iowa building is already on Aureon fiber | Download the Dedicated Internet Access Guide
Common questions
The basics
Buying DIA from Aureon
Ready to stop sharing your internet?
Check whether your Iowa location is already on Aureon fiber, or speak with an Aureon expert about your speed, uptime, and location needs. Prefer the phone? Call 800-469-4000.
Mitchell Griffith is Director of Engineering & Planning, Fiber Network, at Aureon, where he leads engineering and planning for the fiber network that carries Aureon’s business internet, wholesale, and carrier services.
Network figures come from Aureon’s own network and product specifications. Downtime cost research is from ITIC. Uptime figures are calculated on a 365-day year. The shared connection simulator is an illustration and does not measure any specific provider. Last reviewed September 30, 2026.
