Backup Internet for Small Business: What to Do When the Main Line Goes Down

A backhoe two streets over finds your provider's cable. Nobody calls you about it. You find out when the card reader says "offline" and a customer asks if there is an ATM nearby. There is not.

For most small businesses, the internet is no longer a convenience. It is the cash register. This guide covers how to think about backup internet, why a second connection should be a different type from your first, and how to set one up without an IT department.

What an outage actually stops

• Card payments. For many businesses that is nearly all payments.
• Cloud point of sale. Orders, inventory, and receipts.
• Online orders and bookings. They keep coming in. You just cannot see them.
• Phones, if your phone system runs over the internet.
• Scheduling, records, and practice software in clinics, salons, and shops.
• Email and everything your office staff does.
• Cameras and alarm connections that report over the internet.

Work out your own number

We are not going to quote a scary statistic. Your number is easy to calculate and more convincing.

1. Take your average revenue for a business hour.
2. Estimate the share that depends on cards or online systems.
3. Add the wages of staff who cannot work without a connection.
4. Multiply by the length of a typical outage in your area. Your last one is a fair guide.

Then compare that figure with a monthly cost for a second connection. For some businesses, backup is obviously worth it. For others, a cash box and patience are enough. Both are legitimate answers.

The rule: your backup should fail differently

Two connections that share a weakness are one connection. If your main line is cable, a second wired line from another company may enter the building through the same conduit and meet the same backhoe.

A useful backup uses a different path.

• Main line wired, backup cellular. The most common pairing. A cut cable does not affect a cell tower.
• Main line wired, backup satellite. For locations with no usable cellular signal.
• Main line cellular, backup wired or satellite. For businesses that run on a portable modem day to day.

Cellular is popular as the second line because it needs no installation, no wiring, and no landlord permission, and it can be in your hands in one shipment.

Backup option 1: a phone hotspot

It is already in your pocket and it costs nothing extra to try. For a very small shop with one card reader, it may be enough.

The limits: phone plans commonly put separate rules on hotspot data. It depends on one person's phone being on site, charged, and not needed for calls. It struggles with several devices. And when the owner leaves for the bank, the backup leaves too.

Backup option 2: a dedicated cellular modem

A standalone modem with its own SIM and its own unlimited plan stays at the business, ready to go, independent of anyone's phone.

With Beakom, that looks like:

• A modem that ships free with the SIM already inside. No technician.
• Unlimited data. An outage that lasts three days does not run up a meter.
• Month to month. No contract on a line you hope to rarely use.
• No business credit application. A $100 refundable deposit per modem is the only qualification.
• Portable. The same modem can cover a trade show, a pop up, or a second location when it is not on backup duty.

Manual failover: the simple way

Failover means switching from the dead connection to the live one. The simplest method needs no extra equipment.

1. Keep the backup modem plugged in and powered, near a window, in the spot that tested best.
2. Ahead of time, join your critical devices to its wifi network once, so they remember it: card reader, POS tablet, the office computer.
3. When the main line drops, switch those devices to the backup network. On most devices that is a few taps.
4. When the main line returns, switch back.

Write those steps on a card and tape it by the register. Outages happen on the day the one person who knows how things work is on vacation.

Automatic failover: the hands off way

Many business grade routers support two internet connections at once and switch automatically when the main one fails. This is often called dual WAN or failover.

The Business plan modem includes an Ethernet port, which is what lets it plug into a router as a second internet source. Whether your router supports this, and how to configure it, depends on the router. Check its documentation or ask whoever manages your network. We provide the connection. Your router does the switching.

If any of that sounds like too much, manual failover works fine. A few taps during an outage beats a closed sign.

Residential or Business plan for backup?

Residential, $74.99 per month: unlimited data and one modem. For manual failover of a card reader and a tablet, this does the job at the lowest cost.

Business, $149.99 per month: adds a static IP, priority support, business invoicing, and expedited replacement, on a modem with an Ethernet port. Choose it if:

• You want to connect the modem to a router by cable for automatic failover.
• Systems you rely on need a fixed address, such as cameras, a VPN, or a vendor allowlist. Note that your main line and your backup will have different addresses, so anything that checks your address needs to know about both. Our static IP explainer covers this.
• You want priority support when the backup itself has a problem.
• Your bookkeeper wants proper invoices.

You can contact us to switch between plans in either direction with no fee.

Keep the backup ready

A backup nobody has tested is a hope, not a plan.

• Find the best spot now. Commercial buildings have a lot of steel and concrete. Test a few windows using the modem placement guide.
• Leave it on its charger. The battery also means it keeps running briefly if the power blinks.
• Test monthly. Switch the card reader to the backup network and run a small transaction. Five minutes.
• Make sure more than one person knows the steps.
• Keep the wifi password somewhere staff can find it and customers cannot. See our wifi security guide.

What a backup cannot do

Honesty section.

• A regional disaster can take out everything. Severe storms can affect wired lines and cell towers together. See weather and cellular internet.
• A power outage stops your equipment even if the internet is fine. The modem has a battery. Your card reader, router, and lights may not. A small battery backup for the essentials is worth considering.
• Cellular backup needs usable signal at your location. Test before you rely on it.
• Our service is not for life safety or emergency use. Do not make it the sole path for alarm monitoring or anything critical to safety.

Or flip it: cellular as the main line

Some businesses look at this setup and realize the portable modem could be the main connection. Small counters, food trucks, market vendors, job trailers, and seasonal operations often run on it full time, with a phone hotspot as the backup.

If that is you, the same rule applies in reverse: your backup should fail differently. A hotspot on a different carrier's network is a sensible second option. See food truck internet and internet for pop up shops.

Multiple locations

Each modem is its own plan and its own deposit. Three shops means three backup modems. On the Business plan, each appears as a clean line on your invoices.

Some owners keep one modem as a floating spare instead. It is portable, so whichever location goes down gets it. That works if your locations are close together and someone can drive it over.

Frequently asked questions

Do I pay every month even if my main line never fails?
Yes. The plan is a flat monthly price. Many owners put the modem to work in other ways between outages, such as events, a second site, or travel.

Is there a cheaper standby rate?
No. There are two plans, $74.99 and $149.99, and no other tiers.

Does the modem switch over automatically?
The modem provides a connection. Automatic switching is done by a router that supports two internet sources. Without one, you switch devices by hand.

Will my card reader work on it?
It is a standard wifi network, plus Ethernet on the Business modem. Anything that works on ordinary internet works on it.

What if I try it and signal is poor in my building?
Cancel from your account, return the modem within 30 days, and the deposit comes back.

The bottom line

Work out what an hour offline costs you. If the number stings, add a second connection that fails differently from your first. A cellular modem by the window, tested once a month, with the switch over steps taped by the register, is a complete backup plan for most small businesses.

See How it Works for ordering and setup.