This article is the fifth and final article in a series exploring the questions broadband marketing leaders should consider before entering a new market.

Throughout the series, we’ve explored which businesses to pursue first, what motivates them to consider a change, what providers are really competing against, and what it takes to stand out. One final planning question remains: Are we ready to launch?

When Is a Market Ready to Launch?

As broadband providers get closer to entering a new market, much of the attention naturally turns to construction.

Is the network on schedule? Which areas will be ready first? When will addresses become serviceable? When can the first customers be connected?

Those questions are important, because businesses can’t buy the service until the network is ready. So it makes sense that providers tend to think of the launch in terms of when construction will be finished and customers can start getting connected.

Of course, providers don’t usually wait until the network is ready to tell anyone they’re coming. Long before the first business is connected, people in the community may already be talking about the company. Businesses have heard the announcement, and some are already trying to find out when the new service will reach them.

They see crews working along the road and fiber going into the ground too. They may not know exactly what is being built or when it will be finished, but they know another provider is coming.

By the time the network is ready, that introduction may have been underway for months.

What Happens Once Businesses Know You’re Coming?

For many businesses, probably not much. They already have internet service, and unless something gives them a reason to reconsider it, the news that another provider is coming to town is interesting but not particularly important. They hear the announcement and go back to running their businesses.

A few months later, a contract is getting closer to renewal, a business is planning another location, recurring service problems are becoming harder to ignore, or growth is putting more pressure on the network. The business starts asking whether its location is part of the build and when service will be available.

It may want to know what the provider plans to offer or what switching would involve. And if its current contract is coming up for renewal, it wants to know whether the new service will be available before it has to make a decision.

The provider has a construction schedule, but the business has a contract renewal in October, a location opening in January, or recurring outages that are causing enough trouble that something needs to change sooner rather than later.

The business may prefer to consider the new provider and may even be willing to wait for it, but contracts still expire, locations still open, and problems still need to be solved.

Business doesn’t wait for broadband.

What Happens While the Business Waits?

Consider two businesses that hear a new fiber provider is coming to town. Both are interested, neither can get service yet, and the network will eventually reach both locations at about the same time.

One registers its interest early. At first, the provider can’t tell it much more than that its location is included in the build. A few months later, it hears that construction has started nearby. As the work gets closer, it gets a better idea of when service might be available.

The business still doesn’t have an installation date, but its contract isn’t up for renewal yet either. For now, it knows the work is moving along and has some idea of when service might reach it.

As the renewal gets closer, it starts asking more specific questions. Will service be available before the current contract expires? If not, how far apart are the two dates? Could it extend its current agreement for a few months or negotiate a shorter renewal?

Another business hears the same announcement and registers its interest too, but it doesn’t hear much after that. It sees crews around town and eventually notices construction happening nearby, so someone checks the provider’s website.

The address still isn’t available, which probably wouldn’t have mattered much a few months earlier. Now the contract is getting closer to renewal, and the business can’t tell whether service is a few weeks away or many months out.

The crews down the street could mean service is getting close, or it could still be months away. The address checker can only tell the business that service isn’t available today.

The incumbent hasn’t gone anywhere either. It is still selling, renewing contracts and protecting the customers it already has.

Both businesses could end up renewing with the incumbent. One does it knowing the new provider won’t be ready in time. The other may never know whether waiting would have made sense.

Neither has used the new service, but both have already looked for information, checked availability, talked with someone in Sales or waited to hear more.

Why Can a Simple Question Be So Hard to Answer?

For a business trying to decide whether waiting makes sense, the question seems pretty straightforward: When can you serve my building?

The answer is much more complex because there’s a lot happening behind the scenes. It’s a little like watching a new house being built. From the street, the house can look almost finished. The walls are up, the roof is on and the windows are in. Inside, there may still be electrical and plumbing work underway, flooring and fixtures to install and inspections to complete. Even after all of that is finished, the utilities still have to be connected before anyone can move in.

A network build has some of the same dependencies. Fiber may already be running down the street, but portions of the network may still need to be completed, spliced and tested, and there may be additional work required to reach a particular building. At the same time, the provider is doing the work required to actually serve the businesses along that route. Even when the network is nearly ready, the address still has to show up correctly in the company’s systems before Sales can take an order and an installation can be scheduled.

The provider may not be able to say exactly when service will be available, but the business can still know that construction is moving along or hear when the expected timing changes. Without that communication, the business is left checking the website, watching the construction outside and asking Sales whether anyone knows anything more.

Most businesses can understand that timelines change or that a firm service date simply isn’t available yet. Over time, though, those experiences begin answering broader questions about whether the company seems organized, responsive, credible and easy to do business with.