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A service level agreement is basically part of a service contract whereby a level of service is formally defined in a contract. The term ‘Service Level Agreement’ can also be used to refer to the delivery time of the service as contracted. Internet Service Providers often include service level agreements within the contracts they have with customers to spell out the level of service that they are selling in layman’s words. The service level agreement will have a technical definition in terms of various measureable details such as: mean time to repair, mean time to recovery, meantime between failure. The SLA will also spell out the throughput, the jitter, and various data rates.

The service level agreement is a negotiated agreement conducted between the customer and the service provider. The agreement is not necessarily a legally binding contract, it can also be an informal “contract”. The Service Level Agreement records common the common understanding between the customer and the Internet Service Provider concerning the responsibilities, guarantees, services, and warranties. Perhaps it is misleading to call a service-level agreement, an ‘agreement’ as the level of service is set by the customer.