Carrier quotations should be normalised before price is compared. Confirm that each carrier is quoting the same service, capacity, handover, route, resilience standard, construction scope, support level and contract term. Then separate one-off costs from recurring costs and identify exclusions, assumptions and delivery risks. The cheapest monthly charge may not be the lowest whole-life or most deliverable option.
Why carrier quotations are difficult to compare
Different carriers may use different product names, underlying networks, demarcation points and construction assumptions. One quote may include a new route to the building, while another assumes existing duct is usable. One may include managed routing and DDoS protection, while another stops at an Ethernet handover.
A simple monthly-price comparison can therefore produce the wrong decision. Procurement should first establish whether the proposals deliver the same outcome.
Normalise the technical scope
Create a common response schedule and record the following for every option:
- Product type and service description
- Committed and maximum bandwidth
- Interface, handover location and optical or electrical presentation
- Internet routing, IP addresses, BGP and DDoS services where applicable
- Service path and underlying wholesale provider
- Primary and backup route requirements
- Site entry, internal cabling and meet-me room scope
- Support hours, fault targets and service credits
- Upgrade path and available future capacity
Compare the full commercial position
| Cost area | What to capture |
|---|---|
| One-off service charges | Connection, installation, survey, configuration and activation fees |
| Construction | Excess construction, civils, traffic management, reinstatement, wayleaves and private routes |
| Recurring charges | Monthly service, port, cross-connect, colocation, support and maintenance charges |
| Term exposure | Minimum term, renewal, indexation, early termination and asset-transfer conditions |
| Change and growth | Upgrade cost, regrade process, additional ports, diverse service and relocation charges |
Calculate a whole-life value over the expected project period, not just the first-year price. A low recurring rate can be outweighed by construction, inflexible terms or an expensive upgrade path.
Test delivery credibility
Lead times quoted before surveys are often conditional. Ask the carrier to state what has been completed and what remains uncertain.
- Has the network route been desk-checked or physically surveyed?
- Is the service on-net, near-net or dependent on a third party?
- Are wayleaves, landlord approvals or road crossings required?
- Does the route rely on Openreach PIA or another operator’s infrastructure?
- Is traffic management required?
- Who owns each programme dependency?
- What event starts the contractual delivery clock?
- What remedies apply if delivery slips?
Use a weighted evaluation
A useful evaluation gives cost an appropriate weight without allowing it to override deliverability or resilience.
| Example criterion | Indicative weighting |
|---|---|
| Technical compliance and capacity | 20% |
| Physical route and resilience | 20% |
| Programme and delivery confidence | 20% |
| Whole-life commercial value | 25% |
| Operations, support and scalability | 15% |
The weighting should reflect the project. A critical operational site may give resilience and programme more weight than a temporary connection.
Common red flags
- “Subject to survey” without a defined survey date or validity period
- A quote that excludes all civils but does not state the likely route
- Two services described as diverse without route evidence
- Pricing that changes materially after order acceptance
- Unclear ownership of internal cabling or site entry work
- Automatic contract renewal or indexation not shown in the headline price
- A reseller unable to identify the underlying carrier or fault process
- A delivery date that starts only after multiple unpriced prerequisites are completed
Frequently asked questions
Common questions
Should procurement choose the cheapest carrier quotation?
Not automatically. The correct comparison is the lowest-risk whole-life option that meets the technical, resilience and programme requirements.
What is a like-for-like carrier comparison?
It means each bidder has priced the same capacity, handover, route, construction scope, service level, contract term and delivery responsibility, with exceptions clearly identified.
Can CROSS review quotes already received?
Yes. CROSS can normalise existing quotations, identify gaps and exclusions, challenge assumptions and prepare a decision-ready comparison.
How should uncertain construction costs be handled?
Record them separately as confirmed, estimated or excluded. Assign a risk allowance and require a defined survey or design action to close the uncertainty.
Apply this to a live site
You do not need to know the product before speaking to us.
Send us the site, project or carrier quotation and we will identify the most useful next step.