Why is business broadband more expensive?

Do More Than Talk

Why business broadband is more expensive, and is it worth it?

We now live in a world where we feel like our arm has been cut off should we not have access to the internet. Therefore, a reliable, secure, and fast broadband service is one of the most essential services a business will procure. But does every business have the requirement to purchase a business connection, or is a residential broadband service sufficient?

Firstly, What is Business Broadband?

From the naked eye, many believe it’s the exact same as residential. This is not correct. When a business purchases a business broadband package, they can expect more reliability, greater security and faster speeds. Of course, this will come at a higher price, today we will let you decide if you feel it’s worth the extra.

Contention ratio and why it matters to you

Broadband speeds can and will fluctuate depending on your contention ratio, in both business and residential connections. Contention ratio is how many other properties are sharing the available broadband capacity through your provider. The higher the contention, the slower the connection. For example, a residential broadband circuit may have a 50/1 ratio, meaning at peak times you could be fighting for bandwidth with 50 others. In comparison, a business broadband connection could have a 30/1 ratio.

Business broadband traffic will have their traffic prioritised over residential traffic, so you should not see bandwidth issues at peak times.

Service and reliability

Service level agreements (SLA’s) are paramount when choosing your broadband supplier. Service guarantees are a lot less common on residential broadband circuits. With a business connection, you will have in writing both phone line and broadband SLA’s, giving you peace of mind that if there is an issue, you will know the timescales for fix times.

You may also opt to pay slightly extra for greater care levels on your phone line (where most problems occur). For example, a care level 4 (highest possible) may cost you an extra £4 per month, this extra will expense will give you a 6 hour fix time on your line, 24/7 365. In comparison, care level one (residential) will only give you a fix by the end of the next working day (excluding bank holidays). This could mean if your line had a fault on a Thursday, you would have a commitment of a fix by Monday.

Security as standard

Cyber Security is essential for every modern business, in a world where we do almost everything online from banking to data management, we need to stay secure. With business broadband, you will receive, as standard, business-focused security, and in some cases even VPN access and data back-up.

Business Grade Routers

Your router is the heart of an internal network, a poor performing router means poor broadband experience. By choosing a business broadband connection, you will receive a business-grade router, which can handle significantly more devices and a higher capacity of bandwidth. For example, a home router may cope with 10/15 devices, whereas certain broadband routers could handle 1000’s.

On top of higher performance, security is usually much better as well. Business-grade routers can provide things such as firewalls, content filtering, and secure VPN’s to help protect your business and employees.

Is Business Broadband Faster?

While the speeds published from residential broadband connections may seem similar to that of business broadband, it’s often not the same experience when comparing them directly due to the points mentioned previously in this article.

Above and beyond comparing like for like technology, there are also a lot more options available for businesses to choose from in terms of broadband type.

ADSL: The traditional type of broadband that is still used in a minority of residential houses and a small number of businesses that can’t receive FTTC.

FTTC: Currently the most common type of technology in both business and residential premises. This is fibre to the cabinet and then a copper cable to your house. Delivering speeds of up to 80/20.

SoGEA: This is very similar to FTTC technology, however, you will not need to pay for a phone line to have broadband. Allowing you to order broadband from one pane of glass.

FTTP: This is where most businesses are hoping to get to with the rollout of fibre to the premises across the UK. This is similar to FTTC, however, it has fibre rather than copper running to your premises and can deliver far higher speeds, in some cases 900Mbps download capacity.

Leased Line: The diamond of broadband circuits. A leased-line is connectivity delivered straight from the exchange to your premises, dedicated to you and used by no one else.

Conclusion

Every business’s requirements vary drastically. In our experience, if your broadband connection is a vital tool for your organisation, then a business connection is a no-brainer. If you’re self-employed and do some simple activities from home, a residential connection may be sufficient.

There is very little price difference when weighed up against the benefits of a business connection.

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There are many reasons to choose Smooth Comms. Above all, we truly care about the right solutions for our customers, because every single customer matters.

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