Many companies use the internet to conduct essential activities and operations such as communicating internally and externally using Zoom or Microsoft Teams, and transferring vital business documents by email or by file sharing services. A reliable and fast internet connection is a must in the modern business world.

Understanding broadband speeds

Broadband speed or bandwidth used to be one of the most important things to consider when choosing a broadband package for your business. Broadband speeds are measured in Megabits per second (Mbps) or increasingly Gigabits per second (Gbps).Dial up internet access maxed out at 56Kbps (58,000 bits per second), less than 1Mbps (1,000,000 bits per second). 1 Gigabit per second is 1000Mbps (1,000,000,000 bits per second). 10Gbps is 10,000,000,000 bits per second.

Copper-based services simply can’t compete. There have been headlines showcasing remarkable achievements with copper wires – G:Fast for example wanders into the Gigabit speed territory, but over such a short distance of copper wire it simply isn’t a practical option in a national network.So if you need internet access for your business, and your employees, then full fibre optic broadband is the most cost effective choice you can make.

What are your current speeds?

You can easily check your current internet speeds by running a broadband speed test. For example, speedtest.net is a free service that measures your download, upload and ping times.

The test only takes a couple of minutes to complete, and you will receive information on your connection's upload and download speeds in Mbps.

Key considerations when choosing internet speeds

Legacy copper-based service providers try to make business broadband complicated, and the “comparison” sites are still following their lead. For example, Business Comparison says the following:

• 5Mbps – This would support one or two users which are simply browsing online and sending occasional emails.
• 25Mbps – Ideal for less than five users which require basic internet services such as file downloads and business communications.
• 75Mbps – For between five and ten users, this download speed would be capable of supporting frequent file sending, video streaming and regular POS transactions.
• 150Mbps – This would be ideal for between ten and fifteen users which need regular access to cloud services, file uploads and video conferencing.
• 250Mbps – For larger businesses of more than 15 people which regularly stream videos and host conference calls and servers.
• 500Mbps – Ideal for businesses with more than 20 people constantly accessing cloud-based servicers, large file backups and with multiple servers hosted.
• 1Gbps + – This is the fastest connection type and will provide large businesses with quick and reliable internet access and no interruptions.

By comparison, our partner ISP YouFibre offers businesses a much simpler and more affordable range of services:

• YouFibre150, providing an average symmetrical speed of 150Mbps for just £50/month
• YouFibre1000, providing an average symmetrical speed of 1,000Mbps for just £75/month
• … and the astonishing YouFibre10,000 which provides an average symmetrical speed of 10,000Mbps for just £250/month

Which kind of throws all that old copper complexity into the bin!