Business Broadband

[Ursicles]

We are looking for a business broadband connection and were wondering who people recommend, an who they think we should avoid?

As for many business, our broadband connection is critical to our business, so dont mind paying a little more to have a better connection at a faster speed.

 

[fisicx]

Depends on the office location. If you are in a multi occupancy building there is a probably already a business provider.

Why is it critical? Apart from email what else do you need?

 

[Darren Fletcher]

depending on location Try City Fibre gigabit internet speeds and very affordable

 

[Ian Sutherland]

I would recommend these guys http://www.gconnect.net/ they are specialist consultants and will be able to properly asses your requirements and put you on the right connection
We use them and recommend them to our customers.

 

[Ursicles]

Al our rota and planning software is held in the cloud, so if we have no net, we will have trouble accessing the data held there.

 

[fisicx]

You have a phone so just set this up as a WiFi hotspot. Or go to starbucks or sainbury's or anywhere with free WiFi.

But as I said before, if the office is in a business centre it won't ever be a problem

 

[Ursicles]

Office isn't in a business centre, this is a separate office on its own, though there are other occupants in the building.

 

[Leo-InstallingIT]

Depending on how critical it is there are various options you could look at - from a decent single connection to something that can failover to a backup connection if you need to.

The biggest thing I would watch for is the support, go for someone who you can pick up the phone to and pretty much get straight through to someone who can actually help. If you have an issue the last thing you want is to be battling to get help.

There will be various connection options depending on your location. If it helps feel free to PM me the address and I can do a quick lookup for you and let you know what's available. We do offer business broadband connections - but more than happy just to offer a bit of advice on availability!

 

[russ74]

If you don’t mind paying a bit more for great broadband and great service, look at Zen Internet.

Used them for over a decade and think they are excellent.

 

[columbo]

It depends on your geographic location.

Broadband Provider X might be offering a great service 1 mile up the road but in your area - connection reliability might be dire. The surest way to find out is asking local businesses (we'll way within 1 mile radius of your office) which service they are using and their satisfaction.

 

[Ursicles]

I spoke with a mate who was going to use zen for his broadband, so i had a look and their pricing is pretty good.

Thats a really valid point actually about asking the other offices who they use for their internet, ill def do that!

 

[OuterbridgePen]

We are very happy with Andrews & Arnold

 

[Chris Rickard]

A bit late to the party but here's my 2p worth;

Don't focus on speed! Go for a provider that gives you greater comfort in terms of reliability, chances are, unless you're doing something really bandwidth-heavy or you have a lot of staff, you will be fine with "decent" speed.

Some providers offer you backup links, or a better SLA on fixes, but an alarming number of them resell services from another network anyway, so any fault you report they have to nudge it on up the chain. Also consider a router with a option to take a mobile broadband dongle as a backup link.

A couple of them mentioned here (Zen and A&A) have always been highly rated so well worth your time. But don't completely discount the idea of a dedicated connection - depending on your location you might be able to get something better for a lot less than you think.

But also plan for failure with Broadband, as there is always a chance through no fault of your own a problem will arise, if the software is in the cloud you should be able to relocate temporarily if you have a problem.

Sorry for war and peace, slow day!

 

[Ursicles]

Thanks for taking the time to reply - war & peace accepted

I looked at Zen, but they dont do line only option and need a phone line. Bizarrely BT is coming in a lot cheaper than Zen, and offering better SLA on downtime. Im not to keen on BT, but £ is a consideration as is downtime - though we have mobiles with 20gb of data on each to use as hotspots as backup.