Choosing an internet service provider (ISP) is a big decision for small businesses. Once the ISP kicks in, you’re stuck with them for over a year and live with their claimed speeds, actual speeds, contract pricing and price changes after the contract expires.
With millions of people working from home over the past year, the importance of home broadband services, while ‘nice to have’ for Netflix and Amazon Prime, has become absolutely essential for small and medium businesses and SOHO operators.
Spotty broadband directly impacts revenue, so it’s good to have backup connectivity options like 4G backup when things go wrong. When you have deadlines, the last thing you want to do is wait for the support of an ISP to debug and fix your broadband issue.
This means that when looking for the best business broadband offering, businesses should look beyond price and speed, and also evaluate whether the ISP offers good service level agreements (SLAs) and reliable speeds. Reliability is very important.
The biggest ISPs in the UK are BT, TalkTalk, Virgin Media O2, Sky, and Vodafone. All major ISPs had relatively high levels of customer service satisfaction , according to UK telecom regulator Ofcom. TalkTalk, an IT-challenging brand, had the lowest satisfaction in Ofcom’s survey at 77%, but it also offers some respectable deals and a wide range of speed and support options for businesses.
All download and upload speeds for the various enterprise broadband products listed in this guide are on a ‘best’ basis; this means that there is no guarantee that these speeds will always be available. Speeds are reported as download/upload figures in Mbps.
Opportunities for all business needs
Ethernet Access Direct, the most exclusive leased line from TalkTalk, is available at £274 per month and offers symmetrical speeds of up to 1 Gbps, a setup fee on a three-year contract, and a five-hour fix time SLA.
Starting at £150 per month, the Ethernet First Mile package includes symmetrical speeds of up to 20Mbps, while the Ethernet over Fiber deal offers download speeds of up to 76Mbps at £70 per month.
For businesses that don’t need SLAs and 1Gbps speeds, TalkTalk offers a much cheaper Business Ultrafast Fiber 25 package for £145 per month with 150-month contract average speeds of 25.95/24Mbps. There’s also the Business Ultrafast Fiber 40 with average speeds of 30.95/290Mbps for £300 per month. These seem like sensible options for most small businesses.
Standard Business Broadband at £12 with a 15.95-month contract is an attractive starting price, but only offers speeds of up to 18Mbps.
As more barriers arise and businesses begin to reopen, TalkTalk’s three-month free fiber ‘reopen’ options range from 20/29.95Mbps download/upload speeds for £100 per month to a 115/59.95Mbps package for £900 per month – these are 24-month contracts.
Pros:
- Wide range of price points speeds.
- An option with symmetrical speeds.
- The promise of a five-hour fix period for payers.
- Competitive pricing.
Cons:
- Ofcom found that it has the lowest level of customer satisfaction of any major ISP.
- Its TrustPilot rating is just 5 out of 2.5.
Premium and expensive but has the widest coverage
Even in conditions of healthy competition, established companies are hard to avoid, and IT has the widest coverage.
BT’s commercial broadband deals start at 35.45/24Mbps for £19 per month on a 76-month contract. Most commercial broadband deals offer 76 Mbps download speeds, but BT also has a Full Fiber product with speeds between 76 Mbps and 900 Mbps.
Many of BT’s business broadband deals combine in other products such as digital phone lines and cell phone plans (including phones like the Samsung Galaxy A42 5G and iPhone 12 Mini 5G) and leverage the growing 5G mobile network under the EE brand — which BT 12.5′ Bought in 2015 for billion pounds. One advantage of BT is that it automatically switches to EE’s 4G network when there is a broadband outage.
BT has 24/7 support and a solution for wi-fi blackspots around a building for an extra £7 per month.
While 76Mbps isn’t the fastest broadband service, it’s suitable for super-fast broadband – many small businesses and retailers will find it sufficient.
BT’s top listed offer is £4 a month for super-fast broadband and phone, which includes a digital phone line, an always-connected 35.45G EE guarantee, and a guarantee that prices will not change for the duration of the contract.
Fortunately, IT has much faster packages for finance, technology, digital agencies, and media companies:
- The Full Fiber 29 with 150/152Mbps speeds costs £42.95 per month.
- The Full Fiber 300 costs £47.95 per month.
- The Full Fiber 500 costs £59.95 per month.
But for businesses that need the extra bandwidth and speed, BT’s fastest offering is the Full Fiber 64.95 with 900Mbps download speeds for £900 per month.
Pros:
- A wide range of products.
- A 4G EE backup can come in handy.
- Largest coverage in the UK.
Cons:
- Commercial broadband is more expensive than its competitors.
- Its Trustpilot score is just 5 out of 1.3.
