1gb Internet UK – Broadband or Private Line?

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1Gb Internet options in the UK

In 2020 many businesses feel they need a faster or more reliable internet connection. While most of the country is fibre-enabled and can get reasonably fast speeds on home broadband, for many businesses it is not enough. Internet Service Providers like Virgin Media have released ultrafast broadband to the market in recent years, with a maximum speed of up to 1Gb.

It is only available in certain locations and as with all broadband the speeds are never guaranteed, in fact, the average speed you can expect will often be less than 1Gb. To get 1Gb internet businesses have two options :

Fibre Leased Lines

Leased Lines are dedicated to you, unlike fibre broadband which is shared with other businesses and home users. It uses fibre optic cables to connect you directly to the providers’ network giving you a totally secure and private connection.

Leased Line Advantages

  • Higher Speeds – A key reason many business users will opt for a leased line is that they are unrivaled when it comes to upload and download speeds. Leased lines range from 10Mb right up to 10Gb with 3 options for the bearer size -100Mb, 1Gb or 10Gb. This means you also have the ability to easily scale up if your bandwidth requirements change.
  • Security – Being a private line means just that. Your connection is on a private network rather than the shared one you get with broadband. This makes it much harder for hackers to get into the network and easily apply extra security measures that are also harder to be intercepted.
  • Symmetrical download and upload speeds – When using a standard broadband service the upload speed is often much slower than the download speed. This can be a real issue for businesses that rely on uploading and sending data.
  • Scalability – Fibre broadband connections like fibre to the premises or fibre to the cabinet can give you great speeds but if you start using more cloud platforms or increase staff they can begin to struggle. To increase you may get a second line in or look at leased lines which will give you scalable bandwidth should you require it.
  • Customer Service – Leased lines are a premium connectivity choice so you can expect a premium service. Most reputable leased line providers will give you 24/7 proactive network monitoring,  They will also have a set fix time target and come with industry-leading SLA.
  • Available everywhere – Leased lines are able to be anywhere in the UK. If you are extremely rural or there are excess construction charges it may be cost-prohibitive for some but is available everywhere in the UK.

Fibre Broadband

Fibre Broadband can be a cost-effective connectivity option for businesses. It’s generally favoured by smaller businesses or offices because it’s not as reliable as a dedicated connection. However, in well-connected locations, you can now get superfast connections up to 1Gb which can easily cope with an office of 40+ staff.

It’s worth noting that broadband is a shared connection which means you can never guarantee the average download speeds. Just like your home broadband if lots of people are using the same line at the same time you may experience service drops or fluctuations in the speed you get.

Fibre Broadband Advantages

  • Price – Unless you are getting 2+ lines fibre broadband will always be cheaper than a dedicated line. Prices start from around £40 per month for high-speed connections, whereas leased lines start from around £150 per month.
  • Contract length- Most broadband will have a standard contract length of 12 months, although some business-specific products will have 24 month standards.
  • Install time – Broadband can often be installed really quickly – sometimes within a week. There are no site surveys needed by Openreach and often you won’t even need an engineer just plug in the router and you are off.
  • Fibre enabled areas are increasing – It used to be that you could only really get good broadband speeds in central locations of big towns. Luckily the government and UK Service providers have invested heavily in recent years and according to Ofcom 95% of the UK can not receive fibre broadband. This may be at much slower speeds than 1Gb but still a big improvement on traditional wired connections.
  • Off the Shelf packages – If you own a business that has simple internet requirements, a phone line and TV package you can get some competitively priced packages for all three from all of the big-name suppliers like BT, Virgin, Sky etc

How much bandwidth does my business need?

Marketing teams in the telecoms industry have done a great job convincing us we all need superfast internet at home and work. There’s no doubt the internet is vital to most of us but its important to understand how much you need, after all, there’s no point paying extra for something you won’t use.

When talking about internet speed it is usually the download speed that is discussed. This makes sense for home users as streaming, browsing social media, watching youtube and checking e-mails all use the download speed. However, businesses don’t use their internet in the same way.

What they use it for depends on the type of business and its always good to have a solid understanding of what upload speed you need as well as download. Businesses that upload time-sensitive documents to the cloud, data-heavy files like CAD drawings and HD videos will all need a fast upload speed.

You can never really know the exact bandwidth you need but a good way to estimate is first monitor what you currently use. Your IT team will be able to do this and if you don’t have an IT team then you can have a read of an article by DNSstuff that reviews the 9 best bandwidth monitor tools.

How to get the best price on 1gb internet

Once you know you need 1Gb you may find prices vary considerably between providers. Whether you decide on leased lines or fibre broadband we can help you find the right price. Leased line comparison has helped thousands of businesses save on their internet costs & unlike other comparison sites, we are not owned or affiliated with any providers so remain completely impartial.