# Connecting a new site, start to finish | Eightstep > How to connect a new business site, from checking the building before the lease is signed to a tested connection on opening day. Source: https://eightstep.com.au/articles/connecting-a-new-site [Articles](https://eightstep.com.au/articles) · Internet and data # Connecting a new site, start to finish Carrier lead times, backup links and the questions to ask before the lease is signed. 19 August 2026 · 5 min read New sites tend to follow the same script. The lease is signed, the fit-out is booked, the opening date goes on the calendar, and a few weeks out someone asks about the internet. By then the answer can be awkward, because the connection a site needs can take longer to arrive than the fit-out does. This is how we connect a new site from start to finish, and the questions worth asking before anyone signs anything. ## Before the lease The most useful moment in the whole process is before the site is committed to. Tell us the address and we'll find out what's available to the building: whether fibre already reaches it or a lead-in would need to be built, what kind of NBN service it can take, and roughly how long each would take to deliver. A business NBN service typically takes two to twenty days to connect. Fibre typically takes thirty to ninety, and longer if the carrier has to run it into the building. If a build is needed, the carrier's cost for it is quoted in writing and approved by you before any work starts. Knowing that figure and that timeline while the lease is still being negotiated is the difference between a planned opening and a rushed one. ## Choosing the connection The right connection depends on the work the site does, not on what the carrier happens to offer that month. A head office or a site that moves a lot of data wants business fibre, with the same speed up and down for backups, cloud and calls. A smaller site, a two-person depot or a shopfront, is usually well served by a business NBN service. If the site needs to work with head office's systems as if it were in the same building, a point-to-point link joins the two privately. And if your servers live in Azure or AWS, a direct link from the site to the cloud keeps that traffic steady and off the open internet. ## The backup link question Ask one question of the new site: what happens here when the internet stops? If point of sale freezes, calls drop and nobody can reach the applications, the site needs a second connection on a different carrier's network, taking a different path into the building, so that one fault can't take both. When the primary link drops, traffic moves to the backup within seconds and moves back once the fault is repaired, and nobody at the counter notices. Calls, point of sale and the cloud link all run over it. If the site could genuinely work from a phone hotspot for an afternoon, a backup link is optional. Most sites can't. ## Get the next one in your inbox One email when we publish something new. No newsletters, no promotions, and you can stop any time. ## The order of events Once the site is confirmed, the connection runs to a plan with dates against each step, tracked weekly and reported to you. 1. **Site checked.** What's available to the building and what would need building, confirmed with the carrier. 2. **Build fee approved.** If one is needed, quoted in writing and approved by you before the order goes in. 3. **Order placed.** With the carrier, against its lead time, and tracked from there. 4. **Install booked.** The technician's visit arranged around the fit-out, so the comms cupboard is ready when they arrive. 5. **Router staged.** Configured and tested at our office, with the backup link and failover ready, so it goes live the day it's plugged in. 6. **Live and tested.** Before opening day, with calls, point of sale and the cloud tested from the site itself. If the site is replacing an existing one, the old service keeps running until the new one is live and tested. There's no gap, and no afternoon spent waiting on hold. ## After opening day From then on the connection is looked after like the rest of your environment. Every link is monitored continuously, so a fault is usually known about before the site reports it. When one happens, we raise it with the carrier, chase it against their repair targets and keep you informed until it's fixed. Planned carrier work is announced before it happens, so a maintenance window never looks like an outage. The service levels behind all of that are written down before you sign; the [Internet and data](https://eightstep.com.au/internet-and-data) page has the detail. ## The questions to ask before signing - What connections can this building take, and how long does each one take to deliver? - Does fibre need to be built in, and what would that cost? - What stops working at this site when the internet does, and does it need a backup link? - Does the site need a private link to head office or to our cloud? - Is the comms cupboard somewhere the carrier can reach, with power and space for a rack? Ask those early and the connection becomes one more line in the opening plan rather than the thing holding it up. If you have a site on the horizon, [send us the address](https://eightstep.com.au/contact) and we'll tell you what it can take. ## Keep reading Regional sites ### [One environment, wherever your sites are.](https://eightstep.com.au/articles/one-environment-every-site) How monitoring, documentation and good local partners keep regional and interstate sites running smoothly. 2 September 2026 · 6 min read Essential Eight ### [Essential Eight, one strategy at a time.](https://eightstep.com.au/articles/essential-eight-one-control-at-a-time) How the service lines up with each ACSC strategy, and what changes for your people as maturity grows. 14 October 2026 · 6 min read