Around 350,000 business premises have to change their connection before the old network closes in January. Most will go looking for a deal, find a consumer package at half the price and take it. Sometimes that is the right call. Often it is not, and the difference between business broadband vs home broadband only shows up on the day something breaks.
What business broadband vs home broadband comes down to
The connection itself is frequently identical. Same cable, same cabinet, same speeds on the box. So the honest answer is that you are not usually paying for a faster line.
You are paying for what happens when it stops. Consumer faults join a queue with everyone else's. Business faults get a target fix time and a place nearer the front. On a Tuesday morning with no card machine and no phones, that gap is the entire product.
The differences that actually bite
Fix times come first, as above. After that, upload speed matters more than most people expect, because cloud accounting, video calls and off-site backups all send data outwards rather than pull it in. Consumer packages tend to skimp there.
Then there is the small print. Home packages generally forbid business use outright, which means a provider can decline a claim when it matters. Support hours often stop at teatime. And traffic management, where a provider quietly slows heavy users at busy times, is far more common on consumer products than business ones.
The jargon, in plain English
- SLA. A written promise about how quickly faults get fixed, with money back if they miss it. Consumer packages rarely have one.
- Target fix time. The clock your provider works to once you report a fault. Business products are typically same day or next day.
- Static IP. A fixed address for your connection. You need it for card machines, remote access and some security systems.
- Traffic management. Slowing certain users or activities at busy times. Common on home packages, uncommon on business ones.
When home broadband is genuinely fine
Plenty of providers will not tell you this, so here it is. If you are two people working from a spare room, with no phones on the line, no card payments and nothing that stops if the connection does, a consumer package will probably serve you well. Paying more for a promise you will never call on is just paying more.
The moment anything depends on it, the sums change. Phones, tills, door entry, alarms, remote sites, staff who cannot work without it. Once you are there, a day of downtime costs considerably more than a year of the difference in price.
"Work out what an hour offline costs you. Once you've got that number the decision makes itself, and half the time it tells people to stay on the cheap package, which is fine by us."
Rob Mason, Technical Director, Excel Communications
Choosing between business broadband vs home broadband
Ask three questions. What stops working if this connection goes down? How long could we cope? And does the contract in front of me actually promise anything, or does it just mention speeds?
Factories and workshops usually reach the answer quickest, since a line that carries production systems is not really a broadband decision at all. Our manufacturing solutions page covers that.
We are happy to tell you when you do not need us. Have a look at our business broadband options, or call us on 0800 711 7111.
