Carrier Renewal
Checklist.

Renewal date confirmed in writing — not just from the account team's memory. Auto-renewal language requires written notice 30 to 180 days prior in most master agreements.

Negotiation started at least 6 months before the renewal date. Leverage drops sharply inside 90 days.

Three competing quotes solicited, not one. The incumbent moves only when an alternative is on the table.

Decision-maker calendar held for a sign-by date that the buyer controls, not a sign-by date the carrier engineered.

Term length matches the business horizon, not the carrier's commission structure. Five-year terms favor the carrier; one- and three-year terms favor the buyer in volatile pricing markets.

Annual escalator clause priced into the model. A 3% annual escalator on a five-year contract is roughly a 12.5% blended increase by the end.

Volume commitments measured in dollars, not units. Unit commitments penalize buyers who reduce footprint mid-term.

Most-Favored-Nation clause requested for buyers spending over $250k/year. Cap the rate at the carrier's best published or contracted rate to similarly-sized buyers.

Promotional pricing converted to permanent. Discounts that expire at month 13 are the single most common renewal trap.

SLA uptime threshold confirmed (typically 99.9% to 99.99% depending on service tier). Anything below 99.5% on a business contract is below market.

Service-credit formula written as a percentage of monthly recurring charge, not a percentage of "downtime hours billed." The first formula is enforceable; the second never pays out.

Mean Time to Repair (MTTR) committed in writing with credits for missed targets.

Notification process for outages defined: who gets paged, in what timeframe, and how status updates flow.

Early termination liability (ETL) capped, not unlimited. Carriers default to full remaining term; the market norm is 50% of remaining commitment.

Right to terminate for chronic service failure (3+ outages in 90 days, or 1+ outage over 8 hours) without penalty.

Right to terminate for business-event triggers: acquisition, divestiture, location closure. Negotiate "out clauses" tied to events the buyer cannot control.

Portability rights for phone numbers and IP space confirmed before signing. Hostage data is the most expensive thing to discover after the fact.

Diverse carrier or diverse fiber path documented in writing, not just promised in a call. Get the carrier to identify the physical entrance facility and last-mile path.

Failover behavior tested and documented. Most "backup circuits" have never actually failed over in production.

First three months of invoices audited against contract before the dispute window closes (typically 90 days). Most billing errors first appear in the second or third bill, not the first.

Dispute escalation path named: who at the carrier owns billing disputes, what the SLA is on resolution, and what credit policy applies if the carrier is at fault.