Cellular Internet Backup: Managed LTE and 5G

Cellular internet backup is a second internet connection, carried over the LTE or 5G cellular network, that takes over when your main line goes down. Your phones, card terminals and cloud applications keep working on the backup until the main connection comes back. Without it, an outage at your internet provider becomes an outage for your whole business.

Telnamix offers it as a managed service, as part of our managed network services: speeds up to 200 Mbps, unlimited data where coverage allows, optional static IP addresses, and monitoring that tells you the backup is working before the day you need it.

How does cellular internet backup work?

A cellular backup device sits on your network beside your main internet connection. While the main line is healthy, it waits. When the main line fails, traffic moves to the cellular connection, and the people in your office keep making calls, taking card payments and working in cloud applications.

Because it uses a different kind of connection, it does not share the weak points of your wired service. If the cable or fiber into your building is cut, a second wired line on the same route can go down with it. A cellular connection does not depend on that route.

Why does an unmonitored backup fail when you need it?

Most backup connections are installed and then forgotten. The device sits in a closet for a year, its signal drops, its account lapses or someone unplugs it, and nobody notices until the main line fails and the backup does nothing. A backup you cannot see is a backup you are hoping works.

We monitor the backup device itself, not just your main line. If the cellular connection goes down, we notify you, so it is fixed while nothing depends on it. You also get visibility into how it has behaved:

• Whether the cellular backup has engaged.
• How long it was active.
• Whether it is having any issues.

For IT teams responsible for one office or several, that record is the difference between assuming continuity and knowing you have it.

What our managed LTE and 5G backup includes

• Speeds up to 200 Mbps, enough for voice, video and cloud applications.
• Unlimited data where coverage allows, so a long outage does not turn into a data overage. Availability varies by location.
• Optional static IP addresses for VPN connections, secure remote access, consistent firewall rules, and VoIP and SIP trunking. Many consumer-grade and ISP-supplied backup options do not offer them.
• Monitoring and alerts on the backup device, as above.
• One team for the whole network. We deliver managed networks in partnership with Green Line Solutions, so the backup is managed alongside your routers, switches, firewalls and Wi-Fi rather than as a separate box.

What happens to your business phones during an internet outage?

This depends on where your phone system lives, and it is where a backup connection and a cloud phone system work together.

With a hosted business phone system, the phone system itself does not live in your office. It runs in geographically redundant data centers, so an office outage stops your desks, not your business: callers still reach your auto-attendant and voicemail, and calls can fail over to mobile apps or forward to cell phones. Add cellular backup and the desks keep working too, because the phones reconnect over the backup line.

With SIP trunking, incoming calls reroute automatically while your connection is down, to another location or to mobile phones, and return to your system when it comes back.

For voice, connection quality matters more than raw speed. A single call uses a fraction of what one video stream does, but packet loss and jitter ruin calls that a speed test says should be fine. Our free call quality test at voiptest.com tells you in about a minute how a connection holds up.

Which businesses need a backup connection?

Any business that stops working when the internet stops. Among our clients, that includes:

• Retail stores processing card payments.
• Healthcare providers working in electronic health record systems.
• Teams on VoIP and video calls, in the office or remote.
• Small and mid-sized businesses running on cloud tools such as Microsoft 365, QuickBooks Online and Salesforce.
• Multi-location businesses that need continuity at every site, not just headquarters.

Questions to ask before you buy any internet backup

1. Is the backup itself monitored, and who gets told when it fails? If the answer is nobody, you will find out during an outage.
2. Is the data capped? A backup that runs for a full day can use a lot of it.
3. Can you get a static IP address? You need one if a VPN, remote access or your phone service depends on a fixed address.
4. What is the coverage like at your address? Cellular service varies by location, so check before you commit.
5. Who do you call when it misbehaves? One team for the network and the phones means nobody argues about whose side the problem is on.

If your network changed recently and your phones are acting up, our guide to a desk phone that says No Service covers the usual causes. To add a backup connection to your office, talk to us about managed networks or get in touch.