Pizza & Pasta Northeast 2018

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Cellular Backup Internet - more critical than ever before!

When PizzaCloud began offering Internet Phone Service to pizza restaurants we included cellular backup internet to protect the phones when the Internet service fails, but now protecting credit card processing and web orders is just as critical.
Luckily, one backup service can protect them all.

In a nutshell, an additional router is installed between the Internet modem and the firewall for your POS system. When the primary Internet fails the cellular data backup takes over within seconds, keeping your business running.

As restaurants move to the new "chip" card terminals this is even more critical, as many card processors will no longer let merchants go into "offline mode" when their Internet fails.

This situation has become so serious that many POS companies have reached out to companies like ours to provide the cellular backup as a stand-alone service. And some restaurant owners are adding cellular backup service on their own.
Ask yourself a simple question: "How much revenue do I lose every year due to Internet outages?".    Every time a large cable Internet provider has an outage on Friday afternoon our phones light up with customers calling to get our phone service and cellular backup Internet.  In some cases they are calling us because they lost $5,000 or more in one outage for one store!  Then to make matters worse, if you have five or six restaurants all on the same cable Internet provider in one city they may ALL go down at the same time. 
Think of cellular backup Internet as insurance.  You have to have it, but hope to not use it.
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Here are a few notes about choosing a cellular backup provider, or setting one up yourself:
  • Be sure that the provider knows that they have to separate critical services (IP phones, credit cards, web order flow) from things like IP cameras and public Wi-Fi. The backup router MUST be set to only allow the critical services to go out over cellular data in order to avoid high data usage.
  • The Cellular backup provider needs to understand the needs of your POS system/vendor. If the new router is not set up properly you will have problems with remote access, receiving web orders etc. PizzaCloud works directly with the tech support people at your POS vendor to ensure that everything works properly on both primary Internet and backup.  In fact, many POS vendors recommend PizzaCloud to their customers when they inquire about cellular backup, because they know that we work and play well with the POS system.
  • The cellular backup router should be "cloud managed" so that the provider can completely manage the router remotely. This should include running diagnostics, switching the unit from primary to cellular and all other management needs, as well as sending notifications when it is on backup.
  • The unit should not be just a cellular "dongle" with a one inch antenna, but should be a larger unit with dual "MIMO" antennas.  Ideally also able to remove the antennas and use cables to connect a larger/outside antenna if you have poor reception.  Obviously, cellular backup is only as good as the cellular signal.
  • For the same reason, being able to switch carriers is important.  Some cellular data modems have a different physical model for each carrier, so if you purchased one for Verizon, but need to switch to AT&T to get a good signal that unit has to be swapped out.  
    This is another reason that PizzaCoud uses Pepwave routers - they are carrier agnostic.  The one device can use Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and others.

PizzaCloud includes cellular backup Internet with our IP phone service, and now also offers cellular backup as a stand-alone service. Please contact us if you would like more information.
We use the Pepwave MAX-BR-1 "mobile Internet router" for most customers.  Although designed for use in police cars, it is ideal for this purpose.  Easy to mount, in a rugged steel case.  Grease proof, moisture resistant...in general it is the perfect device for this environment!