Member Article

Making broadband work for your business

A majority of businesses today have access to broadband, but still many people remain unaware of their options, how the products can vary and the impact it can have on their day-to-day business activities. In this article MD at the ISP Beaming discusses how businesses can make their broadband work better for them.

Broadband speed is something that constantly arises with businesses and consumers and stories such as “am I getting the speed that I am paying for?” are always in the news – and quite rightly so. However, the more businesses arm themselves with the facts, the more likely they are to avoid slow download speeds and, potentially, a negative impact on their business.

To briefly explain the nuts and bolts, your business is likely to have either a broadband connection via a telephone line or a fibre optic connection. Issues arise when businesses sign up to these ‘mega deals’ only to find that they are not achieving the advertised headline speeds, or when they are not able to order products which they see advertised. This all comes down to geographic location; that doesn’t mean that just because you live near a field as opposed to town centre you should expect a slower speed, but the distance from the telephone exchange or the green cabinet which delivers Fibre to the Cabinet (FTTC) services will be a factor. Also, each Internet Service Provider will have different ways of running their core network, and this can also be a contributor to slow broadband speeds as with networks targeted at the residential market gaming may be given precedence over business applications, something which could seriously slow down the ability of a company to operate outside of school hours, for instance

What can you do? Well, firstly, you should know that Ofcom has stepped in to prevent rogue broadband companies from selling connectivity speeds that are not based on actual addresses. A legitimate broadband provider will tell you exactly what speed you can expect from your service – and that is what you should pay for. Make sure the product you are using is suitable for business if you are running your office over that connection. If you do not have access to the high speed products, keep an eye on the latest updates about green cabinets going live as a lot of government money has been invested to roll this out. The other problem which may arise and which can get lost in the debate about speeds is what happens when you have a fault. If you are using an ADSL service, then the broadband or the telephone line could potentially go faulty and affect the ability of your business to use the internet. Fix times will vary again depending on whether you are paying for a business product as these will have priority e.g. premium telephone line. If your connection to the internet is essential, you can pay for higher service levels on the telephone line, even a guaranteed fix within six hours, and there are ways of making the connectivity more resilient by using a backup connection. It may even be worth going for a proper Ethernet fibre connection (not FTTC), with the service level of a five hour fix, and in some areas there are vouchers to help towards the cost of installation. It all depends on what your business does, what applications you use, where your data is held and how much data you transfer.

Security should also be considered when thinking about broadband. It is common practice to back up data offsite and a certain speed is required to make this practical. This is not just when you are running the backup but also if you do suffer a problem and need to restore from backup. The connection used for this should be secure and the data encrypted if you are using the public internet and that brings me to another consideration, the security of your router. It is all very well having a splendidly fast connection but you also want to make sure that it is you using that bandwidth. When setting up a wireless router, care should be taken to make the password complicated enough to prevent others hijacking your connection. This would result in slow speeds in the same way that having your PC or server compromised by spammers or a botnet would too. To protect your ability to use the internet, it is important that virus checkers and software patches are updated and firewalls are secured properly.

In summary, a secure, reliable broadband connection is not just about speed – it is about finding the right product for your usage and implementing basic levels of protection for your business. There is plenty of good advice about cyber security out there now starting with the government’s cyber essentials. Check your existing package or product and make sure you are getting the speed you are paying for. Then, perhaps now is a good time to review what it is you require of your service and perhaps think about an upgrade.

Many businesses adopt the ‘plug in and play’ approach without carefully considering how much they might need their connection, but as soon as the connection slows down they realise what they should have done!

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Sonia Blizzard .