Compare business broadband and keep your business online

The cable is the same; the contract is not. Business broadband typically adds a static IP, prioritised business support (often a UK-based queue), a written service-level agreement with fault-fix times, and the option to upgrade to a leased line when shared fibre cannot deliver the SLA. You also pay VAT separately rather than baked into the headline price.

For a typical small office, expect £25 to £40 per month excluding VAT on shared FTTP at 100 to 500 Mbps. Symmetric gigabit on an altnet like Hyperoptic or Community Fibre sits at £50 to £90 per month. A dedicated leased line with 99.95% SLA starts around £200 and rises with site distance and bandwidth. See our best business broadband guide for current deals.

If your business cannot tolerate downtime (e-commerce, call centres, healthcare, financial services) or you upload large files all day, a leased line pays for itself in dropped-call avoidance and SLA credits. Otherwise, modern FTTP at 500 Mbps to 1 Gbps will cover most 10 to 30-seat offices comfortably. Our leased lines guide walks through the maths.

Yes, if your premises is in a rural area classified as having sub-gigabit speeds and your project is delivered by a registered supplier. Eligible SMEs can claim up to £4,500 toward installation; homes get up to £1,500. Full eligibility, supplier list and the live regional pots are covered in our gigabit voucher scheme guide.

Most business contracts allow you to switch in a written-notice window, typically 30 to 90 days before the end date. Miss it and the contract rolls over for another term, often with a built-in inflation-linked price hike. Ofcom's domestic One Touch Switch does not extend to business contracts, so give notice in writing and keep proof. See our Ofcom guide for the regulatory backdrop.

For a pop-up shop, a temporary site, a market stall or a single van-based business, 5G for business is genuinely usable: 100 to 400 Mbps with sub-30 ms latency where the signal is strong. For a permanent multi-seat office, fixed full-fibre still wins on consistency and price per Mbps. Many sites combine both: full-fibre primary with a 5G failover.

You need a static IP if you host services from your office (mail server, VPN, CCTV, remote desktop, e-commerce), allow-list your IP in supplier portals or banking systems, or run a VoIP PBX that requires NAT-free addressing. Most ISPs charge £2 to £10 per month for a single static IP. Our static IP guide details the typical use cases.

Start with the basics: a business-grade router with a real firewall, MFA on every cloud account, monitored backups and a tested incident response. Layer in endpoint protection (Bitdefender, AVG, Sophos) and run regular awareness training to defend against phishing. The full stack is mapped out in our IT checklist for business.