Tag Archive for Broadband

Hot Business News Today

How should I select my business broadband provider?

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By Nathaniel Dalby on Small Business UK – Advice and Ideas for UK Small Businesses and SMEs

Sky Business has partnered up with  Small Business to take you through what you should be looking for in your business broadband provider and package.

Cost of contract and hidden fees 

The cost of your broadband is, of course, one of your primary concerns when you begin to look at bundles. When looking at the cost, it will likely be broken down into a monthly fee that runs for a minimum contract (which is usually 24 months but can vary).  

Some providers offer month-to-month broadband which you can cancel any time, but for business broadband, you’re more likely to need a contract. Sometimes price increases can occur in the middle of your contract, but planned legislation from the UK government could soon put an end to this. 

The UK broadband industry is incredibly competitive, so make sure you’re always comparing prices as you go before you settle on a specific bundle. 

Download and upload speeds

Other than cost, speed is the most important number for broadband deals. Most businesses these days require a decent level of speed, which generally means 100Mbps and over.

Thankfully, providers have realised this and rarely feature speeds under

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Hot Business News Today

What are the benefits of business broadband?

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By Nathaniel Dalby on Small Business UK – Advice and Ideas for UK Small Businesses and SMEs

See if you recognise this: you arrive at work in the morning to find colleagues twiddling their thumbs. You ask what the problem is and receive the time-honoured answer, ‘the internet’s down’.

Broadband outage is a problem that can wreck your working day, but now business broadband  is a solution which many small businesses can take advantage of, whether based in a hairdresser, restaurant, café, newsagent or a home office.

We’ve collected some of the best reasons to switch to business broadband and how it can help your company, whether you’re scaling up or just starting.

Unique features

Business broadband offers a variety of features that you don’t usually get with standard packages, such as “always-on” internet. This, as the name suggests, protects organisations from the scourge of downtime by providing continuous digital access even when connectivity glitches are occurring.

It does this by automatically switching to a back-up 4G mobile connection, meaning a network outage which once brought work to a standstill is barely even noticeable. With Sky Business, 4G back-up keeps your key devices running during an outage, so disruption is minimised.

Sky Business broadband is one of

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Hot Business News Today

How to compare business broadband deals

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By Nathaniel Dalby on Small Business UK – Advice and Ideas for UK Small Businesses and SMEs

The internet is so integrated into your daily business life that it can be easy to take it for granted and just sign up for any old broadband package that gets you online. But with how competitive the UK broadband market is, it’s always worth taking the time to research what’s out there.

In this guide, we’ll take you through everything you need to consider when comparing business broadband.

Think about your broadband priorities

It’s easy sign up to the first broadband deal that meets your requirements, but remember that every business will have specific needs and priorities. For example, think about how the industry you’re in and the nature of your operations influence your online needs. Use this checklist to figure out the type of service you need:

1. How does your business use broadband?

If you’re a sole trader with a website, you won’t need as robust broadband as someone with several employees who all need to access the internet at the same time. For example, browsing the web and sending emails only really requires between 1 and 5 Mbps, whereas streaming 4K video will need

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Why choosing the right broadband is essential for small businesses

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By Ben Lobel on Small Business UK – Advice and Ideas for UK Small Businesses and SMEs

Improvements in fibre

In recent years, general accessibility to fibre optic connections has improved, thanks to the national Openreach rollout. Compared to ten years ago, many more homes and businesses are able to access superfast fibre than ever, with gigabit broadband (1000Mbps or more) the next target.

Openreach has said that it aims to build Full Fibre to 25 million homes and businesses nationwide by December 2026, meaning that services are expected to get even faster for businesses that want to upgrade.

In the meantime, Openreach offers a postcode search service, which allows you to find the specific broadband connections that are available at your address or place of business.

The importance of speed to business broadband

There are still some small business operators who struggle with all facets of digital connectivity – a big problem when internet access is so vital to businesses of all types in our modern world.

It is crucial in such a landscape to get the right broadband deal for your business, and for it to be installed when you need it. A poor internet connection will have a serious detrimental effect on productivity, restrict

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

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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

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Hot Business News Today

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

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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

Read more...

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Small businesses applaud Conservative business reform pledges

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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

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

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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

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Hot Business News Today

Best UK business phone and broadband deals – how to choose

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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

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Hot Business News Today

Finding superfast broadband for your business in 2019

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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

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