Tag Archive for Broadband

Originally written by Anna Jordan on Small Business
Vouchers worth up to £3,500 will be available for rural small businesses to help cover the costs of installing gigabit broadband.
The next round of the UK Gigabit Voucher Scheme will launch on Thursday April 8 2021. From then, you will be able to check whether your premises is eligible to get a voucher, find a list of eligible suppliers and see which of those are active in your area. Please note that vouchers are only available through suppliers who are registered with the scheme.
What is a gigabit connection?
One gigabit is the same as 1,000 megabits and in order to get broadband at gigabit speeds, you need a full-fibre connection.
Will I be eligible?
Businesses will be asked to self-certify that they are a small or a medium-sized business. This means that your business must have:

Up to 249 employees and annual turnover no greater than £36m and/or
An annual balance sheet not exceeding £18m

You will asked to provide evidence of this status.
How does it work?
Once you’ve registered with your supplier they will request a voucher from the Government. You’ll then get an email asking if you’re happy to proceed. Your supplier will get to work on delivering

Hot Business News Today

How your rural business can get a £3,500 boost for better broadband

by Anna Jordan • March 29, 2021 • 0 Comments

Up to 249 employees and annual turnover no greater than £36m and/or
An annual balance sheet not exceeding £18m

Hot Business News Today

Small businesses applaud Conservative business reform pledges

by Timothy Adler • December 23, 2019 • 0 Comments

Originally written by Timothy Adler on Small Business
Business owners have given the incoming Government’s plans to invest in infrastructure and reform fiscal incentives a thumbs-up, according to two new surveys.
Both surveys, one from the Federation of Small Businesses and the other the Institute of Directors, were done post-election, when the Conservatives won a landslide majority.
Since then, Prime Minister Boris Johnson has claimed to hit the ground running, keeping the lights in Whitehall for the first 100 days of his administration.
>See also: General Election results leave ‘unanswered questions’ around IR35
Seven out of 10 small businesses say that the new Government’s pledge to invest £5bn to guarantee gibabit broadband would have a moderately positive (35 per cent) or very positive (34 per cent) impact. For firms based in rural areas, the figure rises to 72 per cent.
And the pledge to uprate the Employment Allowance – a discount on national insurance bills available to small employers – from £3,000 to £4,000 is also popular, with two thirds (65 per cent) seeing this as a positive step.
Nearly two thirds (64 per cent) of small businesses believe Conservative business reform pledges to overhaul business rates and extend the existing discount for hurting retailers will be

Hot Business News Today

Labour plan to nationalise broadband ‘will boost productivity by £59bn’

by Timothy Adler • November 15, 2019 • 0 Comments

Originally written by Timothy Adler on Small Business
Labour claims its plan to nationalise broadband and deliver it to 18m premises will boost the UK’s productivity by £59bn.
Currently, one third of small businesses are struggling with broadband speeds that they describe as “insufficient” for their business needs.
UK productivity grew by less than 1pc over the past year and was completely flat in the three months to September, according to the Office of National Statistics.
UK SMEs have cost themselves £1,268 per second in lost productivity this year – the equivalent of over 16 days so far, according to Sage.
>See also: Business rates reform key, says Labour business chairman Rachel Reeves
Only one in 10 premises in the UK has full fibre compared with 97pc in Japan and about 75pc in Spain.
Mike Cherry, national chairman of the Federation of Small Businesses, said: “Improving digital connectivity should be an urgent priority for all parties vying to lead the next government, so it’s good to see broadband placed front and centre of the agenda in the run up to this election.”
However, the Institute of Directors (IoD) poured cold water on Labour’s plan to provide free broadband to every business in Britain.
Edwin Morgan, director of policy at

Hot Business News Today

Best UK business phone and broadband deals – how to choose

by Nathan Hill-Haimes • October 29, 2019 • 0 Comments

Originally written by Nathan Hill-Haimes on Small Business
As your business grows and develops, it’s natural that your phone and broadband requirements are likely to change. Coupled with the evolving nature of the workplace, multiple locations, increased security threats and flexible working patterns, choosing the right solution can be confusing. Here are some tips for deciding on the best phone and broadband solution for your business.
Speed
Broadband packages for business are much faster than home broadband solutions and also provide greater choice; you can opt for either ADSL or fibre and can even choose a leased line. It can be tempting to opt for the highest speeds available, with some providers offering up to 500Mbps, but it is worth being mindful that coverage may be limited. As a rough guideline, most business broadband plans will offer between 20Mbps to 80Mbps. If your business requirement is for much faster upload and download speeds, it would be sensible to move away from fibre broadband and explore a leased line instead. Leased lines are symmetrical, and this means that you are able to gain upload and download speeds of up to 1Gbps.
>See also: What broadband options are available for my business?
Dynamic or Static IP
You are

Hot Business News Today

Finding superfast broadband for your business in 2019

by Partner Content • May 7, 2019 • 0 Comments

Originally written by Partner Content on Small Business
The UK government defines superfast broadband as 24Mb/sec.
What’s more, that definition is an average speed, so your ‘superfast broadband’ could be running at 5-8Mb/sec for much of the day.
Is fibre the answer?
That depends on the fibre connection we are talking about. Domestic fibre connections are definitely not the answer.
FTTC
Fibre to the cabinet (FTTC) connections are better than ADSL copper wiring, but they don’t have the capacity because the connection is shared between fifty premises. An additional issue with FTTC connections is the final few hundred metres of copper cable; a material that is fundamentally unsuited to carrying massive amounts of data.
FTTH
Fibre to the home (FTTH) connections are better than FTTC, but your internet connection is still shared with fifty households, so you will never get the maximum speed out of the fibre.
Contention ratio
This high contention ratio was a way to roll out fibre connections quickly but means that everyone on a domestic optical fibre connection gets less than the quoted speed for much of the time. The overcrowding problem is getting worse every year.
When fibre first started rolling out in the 1990s the only demands on it were from personal computers. Thirty years

Hot Business News Today

The essential guide to setting up a home office

by Anna Jordan • July 23, 2018 • 0 Comments

More and more people are choosing to work for themselves – and for that, they need a home office which boosts their productivity while reflecting their personality. There’s a lot to consider here. You’ll need to think about legal implications like insurance, practical things like a comfortable office chair and design features like colour and
The post The essential guide to setting up a home office appeared first on Small Business.