Why should I invest in better business broadband?

Ok, so you’re a business owner who has staff mainly based in an office, but some also working remotely. You currently have broadband to the office that seems a little expensive compared to your home broadband package, but you keep having connectivity issues, and your video meetings are really poor quality.

In the back of your mind, you know you need to do something, but you’re not convinced that faster internet will return the extra investment required. Better speed = more cost after all.

It’s time to let you into some secrets

Let’s start by looking at why business broadband costs more than the internet you get at home.

There are a few reasons generally.

1. You will normally be offered better upload speeds for your business, which helps when transferring data between locations, when saving data in a cloud service like Dropbox, or when you are working in a service, based in the cloud, like Salesforce.

2. You will normally be given an SLA so if there is a problem and connectivity is lost, you will be guaranteed to be back up and running within a certain amount of time or be given a refund or credit.

3. There may be enhanced security and a better quality router with your business broadband that you would not get with a home package.

4. There is likely to be specialised customer support such as an ‘always-on’ option with faster response times and help for businesses with no IT Team.

5. Most providers will also offer a static IP address that will allow for companies to use extra technology such as servers or SD-WAN for example.

Business broadband can improve productivity

It’s features like these that keep your business running, holding video meetings, accessing HR and payroll in the cloud, or checking over the last deals in Salesforce or HubSpot. Very different from the need to stream TV, play games on an Xbox or do online shopping when at home.

Poor internet in a business leads to lower productivity and effectiveness, costing money and lowering employee morale. We all get frustrated when the internet is being slow, and things are not working or are ‘lagging’ or ‘glitching’.

When you look at a business today and factor in that on average, they are using 40 cloud applications, it makes a lot of sense that there will be heavy use of broadband, and therefore more needs to be spent to get better speeds. Thankfully the speeds are rising much faster than the prices.

Take a look at both our broadband and leased line pages to get an idea on costs.

UK government introduces legislation to support businesses 

Further good news was that in March 2020, UK government legislation for a Broadband Universal Service Obligation (USO) was brought into law. It gives eligible businesses the right to request a broadband connection that delivers a service of at least 10Mbps download and 1Mbps upload.

Whilst these speeds are lower than most businesses would want and well below the national average of 46Mbps, it is a step in the right direction.

Full-fibre roll out completed by 2025

As is the full-fibre roll-out which is taking place across the country with the aim to be completed in 2025. Whilst there are areas that already have access to FTTC giving them speeds of up to 330Mbps, having full fibre will give the opportunity of achieving speeds of up to 1Gbps up and down.

In towns and cities across the UK these speeds are already available supporting business growth. Reliance on the internet will continue to increase as companies realise the benefits and cost savings that can be made by using SaaS and cloud services.

Come and have a chat with one of our connectivity experts and see what speeds you can achieve for your business. Upgrade to faster broadband to see the rewards of improved productivity and remove on-premises technology costs.