Compare Business Broadband

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Broadbandchoices.co.uk cuts through the marketing hype to find the best broadband deal for you. Browse our guides for fair, unbiased advice on what to look out for when choosing your next broadband providers.

BT Business Broadband

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BT Business Broadband offers superfast fibre optic broadband as well as great speeds for all standard business customers...

TalkTalk Business Broadband

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TalkTalk Business offers broadband coverage to more than 90% of the UK at great speeds....

Plusnet Business Broadband

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Plusnet Business Broadband offers a range of broadband packages tailored to the needs of your business...

Primus Business Broadband

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Primus offers two business broadband packages designed for either small or medium-sized companies...

Eclipse Business Broadband

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Eclipse Broadband offers four business packages with a range of usage limits to suit different needs...

XLN Telecom

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XLN Telecom claims it “will never be beaten on price” - so if you're looking for cheap business broadband, it could be the one for you....

Business broadband packages

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The right business broadband package can make a huge difference to your company - making it more efficient as well as improving your website...

Business broadband providers

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Browse profiles for the largest UK broadband suppliers, compare packages and prices before you buy.

Business broadband buyer's guide

Reliable business broadband isn’t as expensive as you might think. You can get online for less £10 per month. Compare small business broadband options before you buy with our buyer's guide and online comparison service.

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 a range of comprehensive business broadband packages. 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 generous amounts 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.

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Priority network access

You might think that because many SME broadband packages are now superfast - 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.

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 providers now offer reliable antivirus and spam protection to guard your business against phishing emails, as well as keeping you safe from online viruses.