Suggestions please for best Business Broadband?

[Onthebrightside]

We are currently with BT £61.99. Any suggestions for other companies with cheaper/better services much appreciated.

Regards,
Trish

 

[hikiwari]

Hi Trish,
What's the name of the BT product?
What are the downloads/uploads that you have on your agreement?
Does this include your line rental?

 

[Onthebrightside]

Hi Trish,
What's the name of the BT product?
What are the downloads/uploads that you have on your agreement?
Does this include your line rental?

I am off to search the BT site right now to get the info.

 

[Ozzy]

In my view it depends on what coverage you have in your area really for fibre, and whether it's home (domestic) or business. With some providers it will effect the support response times and the contention ratio (how many other people your connection will be shared with).

If you have fibre to your door then I'd recommend go for it, and providers range from Sky, Virgin, BT and so it.
If the fibre is owned by a provider, such as in my area Gigaclear, then that works well and who I use at home. I have 1GB up and down, lightly contested (can't remember by how much) but I get consistent 800mb/s upload speeds when I'm asked to take media files home to upload to our servers.

If you don't have fibre where you are then I don't think there's much in it between providers. As a rule though, BT does tend to be more expensive for a like for like service when compared to others.

 

[japancool]

I got 500/73 for 29.99 a month from BT which seemed like a good deal. It's home broadband though, so it doesn't come with a business SLA, which might be important.

That's without a landline.

 

[Onthebrightside]

So BT are very hard sell and very limited what you're getting for you money and the websites not much better to be frank.

We appear to have 45-50 download with min 41 and 17-18 upload at £37.95 per month. I am advised that includes 4g in the event of 'drop-outs' but I don't understand what that is, why we need it, and the 'retaining customers department at BT don't know either.

We also have £14.21 a month on a Cloud diverter which diverts business calls to a mobile - apparently.

They are very hard push sales and have already sent me a contract I can follow the link and sign!

 

[Onthebrightside]

I got 500/73 for 29.99 a month from BT which seemed like a good deal. It's home broadband though, so it doesn't come with a business SLA, which might be important.

That's without a landline.

Hi Japancool, they advised we have 45-50 download - how have you got 500/73? I feel I may be misunderstanding the jargon here.

 

[japancool]

Hi Japancool, they advised we have 45-50 download - how have you got 500/73? I feel I may be misunderstanding the jargon here.

I'm fortunate enough to be in one of the areas where BT have rolled out fibre to the premises (FTTP), which offers much faster speeds than fibre to the cabinet (FTTC).

45-50 download is about normal for FTTC, but 61.99 is excessive, even with a landline. Try Vodafone, they keep bombarding me with offers, I'm sure they'd be cheaper, but there are lots of other options.

 

[Onthebrightside]

I'm fortunate enough to be in one of the areas where BT have rolled out fibre to the premises (FTTP), which offers much faster speeds than fibre to the cabinet (FTTC).

45-50 download is about normal for FTTC, but 61.99 is excessive, even with a landline. Try Vodafone, they keep bombarding me with offers, I'm sure they'd be cheaper, but there are lots of other options.

Many thanks, I will fly off and try to see if we are in a FTTP area.

 

[Onthebrightside]

In my view it depends on what coverage you have in your area really for fibre, and whether it's home (domestic) or business. With some providers it will effect the support response times and the contention ratio (how many other people your connection will be shared with).

If you have fibre to your door then I'd recommend go for it, and providers range from Sky, Virgin, BT and so it.
If the fibre is owned by a provider, such as in my area Gigaclear, then that works well and who I use at home. I have 1GB up and down, lightly contested (can't remember by how much) but I get consistent 800mb/s upload speeds when I'm asked to take media files home to upload to our servers.

If you don't have fibre where you are then I don't think there's much in it between providers. As a rule though, BT does tend to be more expensive for a like for like service when compared to others.

Thanks for that, I am going to check if we're in a fibre to the door and look at the options there

 

[Onthebrightside]

We're not within the Gigaclear network, but it looks like we could get more from the Virgin Voom 400 package at just £40.00.

 

[Paul Kelly ICHYB]

Remember, with a good internet connection, you do not need a phone line, just a VoIP provider.

 

[Onthebrightside]

Remember, with a good internet connection, you do not need a phone line, just a VoIP provider.

Here with go Paul, I'm off to check what a VoIP provider is. If it's cheaper than the £13.95 a month being charged by BT to transfer the landline to mobile we're heading in that direction I think.

 

[Onthebrightside]

Here with go Paul, I'm off to check what a VoIP provider is. If it's cheaper than the £13.95 a month being charged by BT to transfer the landline to mobile we're heading in that direction I think.

Oooo, I don't think this will work because the business would surely wish to keep their current London landline number. Also, it uses Office 365 for business meetings, so it only really needs a landline call to be redirected to a mobile number. I was trying to hunt down a phone that would achieve such as thing but I haven't had any luck yet :-(

 

[cjd]

Directing a landline number to a mobile is pretty straightforward.

Call Forwarding & Divert

Voipfone UK call forwarding: redirect calls to any number. Included in plans, stay connected anywhere. Set up easily with Voipfone for seamless communication!

www.voipfone.co.uk

 

[japancool]

Oooo, I don't think this will work because the business would surely wish to keep their current London landline number. Also, it uses Office 365 for business meetings, so it only really needs a landline call to be redirected to a mobile number. I was trying to hunt down a phone that would achieve such as thing but I haven't had any luck yet :-(

And most voip providers will let you port your existing number to them.

Move your number to Voipfone

We can transfer (port) almost any telephone number onto our service including BT, Sky, TalkTalk and Virgin Media

www.voipfone.co.uk

As an alternative to forwarding your calls, you can also install a voip client on your phone, if you're confident you'll generally have mobile data available.

 

[Onthebrightside]

Thank you everyone, I'll let you know how I get on

 

[Kerwin]

We're not within the Gigaclear network, but it looks like we could get more from the Virgin Voom 400 package at just £40.00.

I'm with Virgin Media business on the Voom Gig1 plan which costs me £72 a month (incl VAT). Very happy with the service.

 

[JEREMY HAWKE]

I would stick with BT the small extra costs each month is worth it for the reliability
If you miss something because you tried to save a tenner it may cost you a lot more money
Broadband is important so don't cut corners

 

[Onthebrightside]

I would stick with BT the small extra costs each month is worth it for the reliability
If you miss something because you tried to save a tenner it may cost you a lot more money
Broadband is important so don't cut corners

The office have said that and as a result I've gone back to BT advised that they are currently offering new clients the same package at just £33.00 and Virgin Media are offering a similar package (but with higher upload/download speeds) also at £33.00. I hope to hear back from them on Monday.

 

[Jordan G. Wise]

Hi,

I'm a manager of a gigabit connectivity company that specialises in business broadband and VoIP.

We're resellers and installers of big providers so it's always cheaper, and we also put in our own deals; such as a free router and two months free. Additionally, we supply VoIP software as well as desktop and handheld equipment.

If you need any assistance, just inbox me and I'll see what I can do for your business!

 

[Onthebrightside]

Morning all,

Eventually he opted to go for a deal I haggled out with BT for £54.00 a month (inc. VOIP, Broadband and upgraded hub, disc and EE 4g back up). Basically the BT HALO 3 package.

There were other deals but they either didn't have VOIP or were deals for 12 months only, at which time they would shoot up in cost remarkably.

Thank you everyone for your help and advice.