Broadband Guide

Compare business broadband

Compare best-selling UK business broadband packages and deals. Compare broadband packages for small, medium and large companies with our Ofcom approved Business Broadband comparison service.

Business broadband deals

Best-selling small business broadband deals on Broadbandchoices.co.uk

Supplier	Speed (up to)	Usage limit	Contract length	Monthly charge
Option - 1 (24 months)	8.2Mb	10GB	24 months	£10.00 (ex.VAT)	0114 296 5133
Option 1 - 24 months	20Mb	10GB	24 months	£12.50 (ex.VAT)	0808 109 1658
Option - 2 (24 months)	8.2Mb	50GB	24 months	£15.00 (ex.VAT)	0114 296 5133
Pro - O2 mobile customers only	20Mb	unlimited	12 months	£16.50 2 Months Free Broadband Ends 28/02/10
Be Pro (12 months)	24Mb	unlimited	12 months	£20.71 (ev.VAT)	0808 101 3421
Pro	20Mb	unlimited	12 months	£21.21 2 Months Free Broadband Ends 28/02/10
Business 2+ (12 months)	8.2Mb	unlimited	12 months	£21.50 (ex.VAT)
Option 2 - 24 months	20Mb	unlimited	24 months	£22.50 (ex.VAT)	0808 109 1658

All of the features of a good SME broadband package work to improve your website, online communication and business prospects so you can be sure that by having a reliable, fast broadband package, your business will grow in the way that you want it to.

Getting a good SME broadband package isn’t as expensive as you might think either. Home office and solo trader packages start from less than £15 a month, though you might have to pay for some of the extra features with some of the cheaper deals.

Think about what you will need from your business broadband package before signing up. Do you want a package that includes free domain names; will you be uploading large files to an FTP site; do you plan on using a large number of email separate addresses? These are all questions you should ask yourself when choosing a new business broadband package.

Email addresses and web space

As well as offering free email addresses for your company, business broadband packages will give you dedicated website domains. For example, Plusnet Broadband’s (www.Plus.net) business broadband gives you up to two free .co.uk addresses so you can have a professional URL from which to run your business.

You will also get an advanced mail delivery system which will limit the amount of spam you receive and protect your incoming and outgoing emails.

All of Plusnet’s business packages offer this SMTP mail system on an unlimited number of email free addresses and even a fax-to-email facility that allows you to ditch the fax machine and simply receive faxes direct to you inbox. Your website will also be eligible for search engine submission to help attract visitors to your site.

Eclipse Broadband (www.Eclipse.net.uk) also offers comprehensive business broadband packages with superfast speeds of up to 24Mb and downloads at up to 1Mb. All of Eclipse’s packages come with free static IP addresses and an online control panel to prioritise your internet traffic for email, web browsing or FTP where needed. Eclipse’s business packages also offer free email addresses and the top three packages give users up to 250MB of web space.

IP addresses

The majority of home user broadband connections have dynamic IP addresses that refresh and change at regular intervals. Business broadband usually offers free static IP addresses that are needed if you want to run your own website or receive emails direct to your PC without the use of a host like Hotmail or Yahoo! which can look unprofessional.

Static IP addresses also allow you to connect to your PC from home, run a secure FTP server for uploading and sharing files with partners and clients, and eliminate the possibility of downtime each time a dynamic IP address refreshes.

Priority network access

You might think that because many SME broadband packages are “up to 8Mb” - just like your home broadband - that you don’t need a dedicated business connection, but because office broadband packages offer priority network access, you’re going to get a much better connection than you would with a residential package.

Priority network access means that your web traffic will take precedence over other users on the same line - which can make a huge difference to how your site runs and to your customers’ user experience.

Lower contention rates

Standard residential broadband packages have contention rates of 50:1, meaning that up to 49 other people can be sharing the same line as you - and their activity will affect your speed. Look for a business package that offers a contention ratio of 20:1 or even 1:1 - though a dedicated line will cost you more.

Priority customer support

With a business package you’ll also get priority customer support 24 hours a day so your calls will be answered and dealt with before those of other users. Plusnet claims that its business customers wait an average of only 23 seconds before their call is answered, with 95 per cent of calls answered in the first minute and 90 per cent of online queries answered within four hours.

High download allowances

Activities such as uploading information to your website and backing up your server would use up a normal download allowance pretty quickly, and while your “unlimited broadband” business package could still be subject to a fair usage policy, ISPs know that business users tend to need higher allowances and will accommodate this. So you’ll be less likely to end up with a warning from your provider to curb your usage, or being fined for excessive downloading.

Faster uploads

If you spend a lot of time connecting to the office from home, or uploading data to an FTP site you’re running, you might want to make use of the faster upload speeds that you can get with some business broadband packages.

Normal upload speeds tend to have a maximum of around 448Kb but Be Broadband (www.BeThere.co.uk) Pro customers get upload speeds of up to 2.5Mb as standard and download speeds of up to 24Mb. Although not advertised as a business broadband package, customers also get up to 16 static IP addresses and Be promises not to traffic shape or throttle your line, making Be Pro perfect for home office and small business users.

More expensive business packages can be bought with SDSL lines meaning that the upload and download speeds are the same. These connections will offer 10:1 contention rates but packages start from £125 a month from Plusnet, from £170 with BT Broadband (www.BT.com) and even more with other suppliers.

Free security

All businesses need to have a good antivirus software to protect sensitive information, and to ensure that they don’t inadvertently infect their entire network with a nasty virus or trojan. Going for a business broadband package will ensure that you get the kind of protection you need; almost all packages will come with a free, reliable antivirus and spam protection to cut down on the number of phishing emails and spam you receive and keep you safe from online viruses.

Compare business broadband packages by cost, speed and package details on Broadbandchoices.co.uk.