How To Guide
How to Upgrade Business Internet Plans
The right internet connection depends on your number of users, cloud service usage, and reliability requirements. Getting it right can dramatically improve productivity; getting it wrong creates daily frustration.
Overview
Business internet differs from residential in several key ways: service level agreements (SLAs) with uptime guarantees, faster fault response times, static IP addresses, and priority traffic routing. The additional cost is almost always justified.
Step 1: Assess Your Bandwidth Needs
Calculate what speed you actually need before shopping.
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Bandwidth Calculator
- Basic rule: 5-10 Mbps per employee for standard office work (email, web, cloud apps)
- Video conferencing: Add 3-5 Mbps per simultaneous call (HD video)
- Cloud applications (Salesforce, SharePoint, ERP): Add 10-20 Mbps for heavy usage
- Large file transfers: Factor in average file sizes and transfer frequency
- VoIP phone system: Add 100 Kbps per concurrent call
- Example: 20 employees x 8 Mbps average = 160 Mbps minimum download speed
- Always add 50% headroom for peak usage periods and future growth
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Upload Speed Matters
- Most broadband is asymmetric: fast download, slow upload
- Cloud backup, sending large emails, video calls rely heavily on upload
- If your team uploads large files regularly, you need symmetric speeds
- Leased lines offer equal upload and download (symmetric)
- Standard FTTC: 80 Mbps down but only 20 Mbps up — may bottleneck
- FTTP and leased lines offer much better upload speeds
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Reliability Requirements
- Standard broadband: 95-99% uptime, best-effort fault response
- Business broadband: 99.5% uptime, same-day or next-business-day support
- Leased line: 99.9%+ uptime, 4-hour fault fix SLA, proactive monitoring
- Critical question: What does one hour of internet downtime cost your business?
- If downtime costs exceed the monthly price difference, upgrade immediately
- Consider 4G/5G failover for critical connectivity — auto-switches when primary fails
Step 2: Connection Options
Compare available business internet types.
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Business Broadband (FTTC/FTTP)
- FTTC (Fibre to Cabinet): Up to 80/20 Mbps, widely available, from 25 pounds/month
- FTTP (Fibre to Premises): Up to 1 Gbps symmetric, growing availability, from 40 pounds/month
- Business packages include: Static IP, priority support, SLA
- Suitable for most small businesses with 1-20 employees
- Contention ratio means speeds vary at peak times (typically 20:1 to 50:1)
- Good for: Email, web browsing, cloud apps, occasional video calls
- Installation: Usually within 2-4 weeks
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Leased Lines
- Dedicated, uncontended connection: guaranteed speed at all times
- Symmetric: Upload speed equals download speed
- 100 Mbps from 200 pounds/month, 1 Gbps from 400 pounds/month
- Strict SLA with financial penalties if provider fails uptime commitment
- Contention ratio 1:1 — the speed is yours alone
- Essential for businesses relying on cloud services, VoIP, or video conferencing
- Installation typically takes 30-90 days — plan well ahead
- Good for: 10+ employees, heavy cloud usage, VoIP phone systems
Pro Tip:
If your business depends on internet connectivity for revenue — online sales, cloud-hosted CRM, VoIP phone system — a leased line typically pays for itself in prevented downtime and productivity gains.
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Backup and Failover
- 4G/5G backup: Router with SIM card that activates when primary fails, from 20 pounds/month
- SD-WAN: Bonds multiple connections for seamless failover and load balancing
- Dual broadband: Two separate lines from different providers for redundancy
- Configure automatic failover so users are not disrupted
- Test failover regularly to ensure it actually works
- Critical for any business where internet downtime stops work entirely
Step 3: Migration and Setup
Switch to your new connection smoothly.
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Migration Planning
- Order new connection while keeping existing one active
- Allow overlap period: Run both connections simultaneously for 2-4 weeks
- Update DNS records if hosting services (reduce TTL before migration)
- Schedule the switchover for a low-traffic period (evening or weekend)
- Test all critical services on the new connection before decommissioning the old one
- Notify your team about the migration schedule and any expected disruption
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Post-Migration Checks
- Run speed tests from multiple devices at different times of day
- Test video conferencing quality and VoIP call clarity
- Verify VPN connectivity for remote workers
- Test failover to backup connection if configured
- Monitor for the first month and compare against expected performance
- Contact provider immediately if speeds don't match the service agreement
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