Your Clients Deserve Carrier-Grade. So Do You.
When Your Internet Goes Down, Your Registers Stop. We Make Sure That Does Not Happen.
EFTPOS downtime costs the average retailer around $400 per hour in lost sales. Summit Internet keeps your POS systems, payment terminals, and inventory platforms running with business-grade connectivity and automatic 4G backup — so your tills never go silent.
The Connectivity Challenge
In retail, connectivity is not an IT issue — it is a revenue issue. The moment your internet drops, your EFTPOS terminals stop processing payments. Your cloud POS loses its connection. Your inventory system goes blind. And your customers, who almost certainly are not carrying cash, walk out the door.
The numbers are stark. A retailer turning over $1 million a year with a 30% margin loses approximately $400 for every hour of EFTPOS downtime. For busier stores, the figure is higher. For multi-site retailers, a single widespread outage can cost thousands. And the damage goes beyond the immediate lost sales — customers who cannot pay remember the experience and may not come back.
This is not a theoretical risk. The nationwide network outage that took EFTPOS offline across 400,000 Australian businesses made it brutally clear: relying on a single internet connection with no backup is a gamble that every retailer makes every trading day. And it is a gamble you do not need to make.
The shift to cloud-based POS systems — Lightspeed, Square, Shopify POS, Retail Express — has made retailers more connected and more efficient, but also more dependent on their internet connection. Add in inventory management syncing across multiple stores, customer WiFi, digital signage, CCTV, and staff rostering platforms, and today’s retail environment has a connectivity appetite that a basic NBN plan simply was not designed to satisfy. When you layer in seasonal peaks — Christmas trade, Black Friday, end-of-financial-year sales — the demands only intensify.
What retailers need is not just fast internet. They need reliable internet with a backup plan that activates automatically when the primary connection fails. They need a provider who understands that in retail, downtime is not an inconvenience — it is lost revenue.
How Summit Helps Retail
4G Backup: Your EFTPOS Insurance Policy
This is the single most important thing Summit does for retailers. Our automatic 4G backup service sits alongside your primary internet connection and monitors it constantly. The moment your primary link fails, the backup activates within seconds — routing your EFTPOS transactions, POS system, and other critical traffic through the 4G mobile network. Your payment terminals keep processing. Your POS keeps running. Your customers keep buying. When the primary connection is restored, traffic switches back automatically. Think of it as insurance that pays for itself the first time it activates.
Business-Grade Primary Connectivity
Your primary internet connection matters too. Summit offers fixed wireless, Business NBN, and Ethernet over Fibre — each delivering dedicated, business-grade performance designed for the demands of retail. Our fixed wireless service is particularly valuable for retail locations in shopping strips, industrial precincts, or suburban centres where NBN performance is inconsistent. With dedicated bandwidth that is not shared with surrounding residences, your connection stays consistent during the busiest trading hours.
Multi-Store Connectivity on One Account
If you operate more than one store, you know the pain of managing separate internet providers at each location — different plans, different support contacts, different bills, different service levels. Summit connects all your stores under a single account with consistent service and coordinated support. Whether you have two shops or fifty, we manage the connectivity across all of them. One provider, one bill, and when you call for support, one team that understands your whole operation.
Professional Phone System for Customer Service
Whether your customers are calling to check stock, enquire about trading hours, or follow up on an order, how your store answers the phone matters. Summit’s FlexPBX hosted phone system gives your retail business a professional call experience — auto-attendant, call routing to the right department or store, voicemail to email, and the ability to manage calls across multiple locations from a single system. If you operate under a franchise or group brand, a 1300 number provides one consistent contact point for customers regardless of which store they are calling.
Mobile Broadband for Pop-Up Shops and Markets
Retail does not always happen inside four walls. If your business sells at markets, trade shows, pop-up locations, or seasonal venues, Summit’s mobile broadband gives you a portable internet connection for your EFTPOS terminal and POS system wherever you go. No relying on venue WiFi. No hoping your phone’s hotspot holds up. Just a dedicated data connection that keeps you trading.
Services That Matter to MSPs
| Service | Why It Matters to Your Store |
|---|---|
| 4G Backup | Automatic EFTPOS and POS failover. Your most important connectivity feature as a retailer. |
| Fixed Wireless Internet | Dedicated business-grade bandwidth that does not share capacity with nearby residences. Ideal for retail locations with unreliable NBN. |
| Business NBN | Reliable NBN with static IP for stores in areas with good NBN infrastructure. |
| Hosted PBX (FlexPBX) | Professional phone system with auto-attendant, multi-store call routing, and voicemail to email. |
| Inbound 1300/1800 Numbers | One memorable number for customer enquiries across all your stores. |
| Mobile Broadband | Portable internet for markets, pop-ups, and temporary trading locations. |
| Ethernet Over Fibre | High-capacity fibre for flagship stores and head offices with heavy data demands. |
| MPLS Private Networks | Secure connectivity between head office, warehouse, and store locations for inventory and POS data. |
Frequently Asked Questions
We have multiple stores — can you manage connectivity for all of them?
Yes. Summit specialises in multi-site business connectivity. We can connect each store with the most appropriate technology for its location — fixed wireless, NBN, or fibre — and manage everything under a single account. You get consistent service levels across all your locations, one bill, and one support team that understands your entire retail operation. Beacon Lighting and Choices Flooring already trust us with exactly this kind of multi-store connectivity.
Our store is in a shopping strip with terrible NBN — can you help?
This is exactly the situation Summit's fixed wireless network was built for. Many retail strips have ageing or congested NBN infrastructure that was never designed for the demands of modern retail. Our fixed wireless connects your store via a small rooftop antenna directly to our own network, bypassing NBN entirely. Dedicated bandwidth, no sharing with surrounding premises, and typically installed within 10 business days.
What about connectivity for pop-up shops or market stalls?
Summit's mobile broadband service provides a portable, dedicated internet connection you can take anywhere. Connect your EFTPOS terminal and POS system at a market, trade show, or pop-up venue without relying on venue WiFi or personal hotspots. It is a proper business connection on the go.
How much does EFTPOS downtime actually cost?
The maths is straightforward. Take your annual revenue, divide by your annual trading hours, and apply your margin. For a retailer doing $1 million a year across roughly 2,500 trading hours, that is around $400 per hour in lost gross profit when the tills are not working. During peak periods — Christmas, Black Friday, weekend trade — the hourly cost is even higher because of the concentration of sales.
Is there a lock-in contract?
Summit offers flexible terms. We are confident our service keeps you — not a contract. Talk to our team about the plan structure that works best for your business.
Why Retail Businesses Choose Summit
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Trusted by Australian Retailers
Summit Internet provides connectivity for brands including Beacon Lighting and Choices Flooring — multi-store retail operations that depend on reliable internet and EFTPOS at every location, every trading day. When national retail brands trust us with their connectivity, you can be confident we understand what retail demands.
4G Backup Changes Everything
After the nationwide outage that took EFTPOS offline for 400,000 businesses, every retailer should be asking: ‘What happens to my sales if my internet goes down?’ With Summit’s 4G backup, the answer is simple — your EFTPOS keeps working. The backup pays for itself the first time it saves you from an outage during peak trade.
Own Network, Fast Fixes
Summit holds ACMA Carrier Licence #388 — we own and operate our own network. When something goes wrong on our fixed wireless network, our technicians resolve it directly. No waiting for a third-party provider. No blame-shifting. For a business where every minute of downtime costs real money, the speed of fault resolution matters enormously.
One Provider, One Bill
Internet, phones, mobile, backup — all from Summit, all on one account. No more juggling multiple telco providers across multiple stores. One support number, one team that knows your business, one invoice each month.
Stop Losing Sales to Internet Outages
Every hour your EFTPOS is down costs you money. Summit’s 4G backup keeps your tills running, and our business-grade internet keeps your whole retail operation connected. Trusted by Beacon Lighting, Choices Flooring, and retailers across Melbourne.