Most enterprise buyers ask this on day one. Here's the honest answer — including the cases where going direct actually makes sense.
A side-by-side at a glance — what changes, what stays the same.
| Going direct to one carrier | Working through Fibi | |
|---|---|---|
| Carriers compared | 1 (the one you called) | 3–5 qualified, plus regional players |
| Side-by-side pricing | You build the matrix yourself | Delivered in 24 hours |
| Negotiation leverage | Your single deal | Aggregate volume across 100s of clients |
| SLA & contract review | Their attorneys vs yours | We red-line on your behalf |
| Multi-site coordination | Different rep per region | One PM across all locations |
| Mid-contract issues | Their queue, their priority | Escalation through our channel team |
| Technology bias | Whatever they sell | Carrier-agnostic, fit-first |
| Cost to you | Same per-month rate | Same rate. Carrier pays our commission. |
We'd rather address the hard questions directly than hope you don't ask.
Myth
«A broker just adds a layer. We'll get a better deal direct.»
Reality
Carriers price the same to you whether you come direct or through us. The commission is paid out of their channel budget, not added to your invoice. We frequently get better pricing through volume agreements you don't have access to.
Myth
«Brokers are biased toward whoever pays the highest commission.»
Reality
A bad placement loses us future business with that carrier and breaks the client relationship. Our incentive is fit, not commission size — which is why we routinely place clients with carriers that pay us less, when it's the right answer.
Myth
«Our IT team can run the RFP themselves.»
Reality
They can. But a multi-carrier RFP for 50 sites can take 100–200+ hours internally — and they don't have the carrier relationships to get senior reps to the table on day one. We typically compress that timeline 5–10× faster.
Myth
«If something breaks, we want to call the carrier — not a middleman.»
Reality
You can. Service tickets always go direct between you and the carrier. We step in only for escalations, billing disputes, and contract issues — where having a channel relationship gets you out of Tier-1 limbo.
When going direct DOES make sense
Single location, single service, you already know the carrier and the price.
Be honest
If you're a 1-location SMB ordering 1 Gbps fiber from a known carrier and the price is fine — call them directly. We're not going to add value on a 5-minute order. Brokers earn their keep in complexity: multi-site, multi-carrier, multi-service.
The bottom line
If your telecom footprint is > 1 site OR > 1 service OR > $5K/mo, brokering wins.
Why
Below that threshold, the value of optionality and negotiation is small. Above it, the cost of not running a competitive process is often 20–40% above competitive market rates.
Send us your last carrier invoice (redacted). We'll show you what 3 other carriers would charge for the same service. No commitment, no obligation.