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Business Broadband & Internet connectivity

Let us get straight to the point here!

Choosing a business broadband supplier is like nothing on earth!!

Once you have broadband explained to you, you can make some informed decisions.

One important thing to understand is, almost regardless of which Business Broadband supplier you choose, the speed and performance you will enjoy is almost completely dependent on your location and more specifically the length of copper wire between your business premises and the distance from the BT exchange.

In other words, you can largely ignore any advertising and marketing claims (eg 24Mb, 8Mb) as, unless you are very lucky, they will not apply to you!! Furthermore, you will not know what business broadband speed you can expect until you connect your router and check your speed – try http://www.broadbandspeedchecker.co.uk/

Having said that, BT are in the process of upgrading the UK network so broadband speed should improve although as this happens, people will use the internet for more demanding applications which may negate some of the improvements.

How can I improve my business broadband speed? Well, you may be lucky enough to be in exchange area which has an LLU Broadband supplier. LLU companies have installed their equipment in some of BT’s local exchanges and can offer faster broadband speed. Try www.samknows.com to see if you can take advantage of this. One example we have had experience of is Be There which is owned by O2.

One more thing – when you buy business broadband, the broadband supplier normally supplies a wireless router free of charge. Free things are often valueless and if your internet connection is important it would be prudent to buy a decent router from your IT support company – eg Draytek Vigor  - who will configure it for you. If it is broadband for your home this is not necessary unless you rely heavily on it for work.

We normally order business broadband for customers from Telstra or Adept Telecom who both charge £ 30 per month although Adept have just announced different business broadband packages from £ 24.99 per month (Mar 09).

When we have discussed broadband above, we have been referring to ADSL broadband which is the most common variant – the download speeds are normally 10 times the upload speeds. More recently, ADSL2 has been made available which will provide speeds of up to 8Mb download and 800K upload, depending on distance from the exchange.

If you need high upload and download speeds, for example if you are using VoIP or connecting to a remote server, you may need to pay for the more costly SDSL which is the same speed both ways and should offer better broadband performance.

Note both variants are normally non-dedicated. In other words, you are sharing the performance with up to 20 other customers and therefore performance is always variable. It is possible to get better contention ratios with SDSL and also Service Level Agreements.

Note with SDSL you cannot use the telephone line that it is delivered upon for any other service than the SDSL connection. This is unlike ADSL which allows you to use the analogue line for voice or fax calls.

Note that any telephone line that is ordered must be 'vanilla'. In other words, there must be no ancillary services on the line (eg Call Diversion).

By reading this page hopefully you feel you have had broadband explained to you to some extent.

We will be updating this page shortly with more information on broadband for business and broadband truths. Call us if you need help and advice. You can count on us to point you in the right direction, provide some Broadband insider secrets to help and advise you so that you end up with a Reliable Business Broadband Supplier.

Tips For Choosing Business Broadband Providers
 
Business broadband is now like the circulatory system of the business world, aiding the growth of global economies after the economic downturn did so much damage and opening new avenues of business to companies of all types and all sizes. As a result it`s essential that you pick the right business broadband package that suits the needs of you and your company.
 
Thanks to the government`s Digital Britain initiative everyone in the UK is expected to have broadband in their home by 2012 and that target means the marketplace online is opening up more than ever before. As a result the price of broadband is coming down across the board and speeds are increasing thanks to cable broadband as well as higher speed ADSL offered by BT and others.

Picking a Package - Speed

For business broadband, you have a range of speed options open to you. Cable broadband offers the fastest connection speeds currently available, though it`s limited to cabled areas only. On the other hand, BT now offer 20Mbps business broadband to new customers and providers like BE and Bulldog have 24Mbps available in certain areas. The faster the speed the more PCs will be able to share the connection in your office and it also makes things like VoIP calls and video conferencing a possibility

Extras

Many business broadband packages come with free extras, the most important of which for some will be the free wireless router. With a wireless router you`ll be able to connect multiple PCs to the internet without the need for a wired network and many businesses take advantage of wireless networks by allowing customers and clients to connect to it whilst they are visitng. This has worked as well in train stations and cafes as it has in large corporate buildings, so Wi-Fi is something to look out for, particularly the latest wireless N technology which offers wider network coverage and faster download speeds across the airwaves.

Web Space, Email and Static IPs

If you haven`t got a web site yet you might want to pick a business broadband package that includes some space on the provider`s servers to which you can upload a website. This is a great way of promoting your business online and goes hand in hand with multiple email accounts that providers like Tiscali, Plusnet and many others offer. Business email addresses are great to hand out to clients and make your business look most professional. Another thing certain broadband providers offer their business broadband customers is access to a static IP address. A static IP will allow you to run a server from within your business which you can use to host a website, store files and folders and then use broadband elsewhere to access the files remotely whenever you need to. Some providers will include a static IP as standard, whilst others, like BT, will charge extra each month for the privilege.