Key takeaways, 2026
- Default choice: FTTP at 500 Mbps or 1 Gbps is the right business broadband for most UK SMEs, from around £35 a month.
- Leased line territory: guaranteed symmetric bandwidth, a 4-hour fix SLA and dedicated capacity from £200 a month for 100 Mbps.
- Switch-off deadline: the UK PSTN copper network closes at the end of January 2027 ; analogue lines and most FTTC services must be migrated by then.
- Altnet competition: CityFibre, Hyperoptic and Community Fibre now pass over 10 million UK premises, often beating Openreach on price.
85%
UK FTTP coverage
Openreach plus altnets, May 2026.
£25
From / month
FTTP 100 Mbps business plan.
Jan 2027
PSTN switch-off
Copper retirement deadline.
10m+
Altnet premises
Covered by CityFibre, Hyperoptic et al.
Business broadband connection types in 2026
The UK business broadband market in 2026 has effectively narrowed to four live products. ADSL is no longer sold, FTTC is being decommissioned, and the choice for a new contract is almost always between FTTP, SOGEA, fibre leased line or 5G fixed wireless access.
| Connection | Download | Upload | SLA | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ADSL / ADSL2+ | Up to 24 Mbps | 1 Mbps | Best effort | Retired for new orders |
| FTTC | 30 to 80 Mbps | Up to 20 Mbps | Best effort | Being phased out |
| SOGEA | 30 to 80 Mbps | Up to 20 Mbps | Best effort | Bridge product until FTTP |
| FTTP | 100 Mbps to 1 Gbps | 50 to 220 Mbps | NBD fix | Default choice |
| Fibre leased line | 100 Mbps to 10 Gbps | Symmetric | 4 to 6 h fix | Mission-critical only |
| 5G FWA | 100 to 500 Mbps | 20 to 80 Mbps | Best effort | Rural and temporary sites |
SLA = Service Level Agreement. NBD = Next Business Day.
Realistic 2026 prices, by speed tier
The table below shows indicative monthly prices ex-VAT for May 2026, drawn from a Selectra scan of BT Business, Vodafone Business, Virgin Media Business, TalkTalk Business, Zen Internet, BeFibre, Hyperoptic Business and Community Fibre Business pricing. Use these as a benchmark, not a quote.
| Connection | Speed tier | Entry price | Mid-market | Premium |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| FTTP | 100 Mbps | £25 | £30 | £35 |
| FTTP | 500 Mbps | £35 | £40 | £45 |
| FTTP | 1 Gbps | £40 | £48 | £55 |
| SOGEA | 80 Mbps | £22 | £28 | £32 |
| Leased line | 100 Mbps | £200 | £300 | £400 |
| Leased line | 1 Gbps | £350 | £475 | £600 |
| 5G FWA | 100 to 300 Mbps | £25 | £35 | £45 |
Prices ex-VAT, 24-month term, May 2026. Leased-line install fees of £500 to £3,000 may apply separately. Source: Selectra market scan.
Top UK business broadband providers in 2026
The top tier of UK business broadband providers has consolidated around six names, with the altnets adding genuine competition on price in urban areas. None of these providers is best for everyone, the right choice depends on coverage, support model and bundle requirements.
BT Business
Broadest UK coverage, deepest catalogue of managed services and the largest field-engineer footprint. Premium pricing offset by enterprise-grade SLAs, cyber-security wrap and bundled mobile.
Strength: scale, SLAs, managed bundles
Vodafone Business
Strong FTTP and fibre leased-line pricing on the CityFibre footprint, with native 5G bundles via the merged VodafoneThree mobile network. A serious contender for mid-market SMEs.
Strength: 5G + fibre bundles
Virgin Media Business
Cable plus nexfibre footprint covers an alternative network to Openreach, with strong upload speeds and competitive symmetric leased-line pricing inside its serviceable area.
Strength: alternative network and high upload
Zen Internet
Top of the Which? Business broadband league for customer service and reliability in 2025. UK-based support, strong on FTTP and leased lines, no offshore call centres.
Strength: customer service and UK support
Hyperoptic / Community Fibre Business
Altnet challengers covering millions of urban premises, especially in London and other UK metros. Gigabit FTTP at SME prices, with leased-line tiers available on the same fibre.
Strength: gigabit at altnet prices
TalkTalk Business
Price-led national provider, focused on FTTP from 2024 onwards. Good fit for cost-sensitive SMEs with light support needs ; lower SLA tier than BT or Zen.
Strength: lowest list prices on FTTP
What to look for in a 2026 business broadband contract
Headline speed and headline price are the easy part. The contract terms below are where the long-term cost of a business broadband contract actually sits, and where the differences between providers matter most.
SLA and credits
Check the fix-time SLA, the service-credit mechanism and the cap on credits. A 4-hour SLA with a 1% credit cap is worth less than 24-hour SLA with 25% credits.
Static IP and routing
Confirm whether a static IP is included or chargeable, whether IPv6 is enabled, and whether the router supports the management features your IT team needs.
Mid-contract price rises
Ofcom has banned inflation-linked rises on consumer contracts ; many business contracts still allow CPI+3.9%. Negotiate a price-lock, or insist on a defined annual uplift.
The PSTN switch-off: what every UK business needs to do
The Openreach copper retirement is the single biggest piece of business telephony admin in the UK in 2026. The switch-off was originally scheduled for December 2025, but Ofcom approved a one-year delay following high-profile incidents involving vulnerable customers being migrated to VoIP without adequate fallback planning. The new deadline is the end of January 2027.
For a business, this means three concrete deliverables before the deadline: (1) migrate every analogue phone line to a SIP or hosted-voice equivalent, (2) migrate every FTTC broadband line that runs over copper to FTTP or SOGEA, and (3) audit any device that still depends on a PSTN dial-tone (alarm panels, lift phones, fax machines, EPOS terminals, telecare). Devices in category three are where most businesses get caught out, because the dependency is often invisible until the line goes dead.
When a leased line is worth £300 a month
A fibre Ethernet leased line is materially more expensive than FTTP and the speed alone is rarely the reason to buy one. The case for a leased line in 2026 rests on five non-speed properties: symmetric upload, uncontended dedicated bandwidth, a 4 to 6 hour fix SLA, predictable jitter for real-time applications, and a service-credit regime that pays out when those guarantees slip.
If your business runs cloud telephony at scale, hosts a customer-facing service from the office, depends on real-time machinery, or simply cannot afford a day-long outage, the leased-line premium is justifiable. For a typical office of 5 to 50 users using SaaS applications, a 1 Gbps FTTP business plan delivers a better day-to-day experience for less than a fifth of the cost. See our dedicated leased lines guide for the full breakdown.
Frequently asked questions
For the majority of UK SMEs, a Fibre to the Premises (FTTP) business plan is the right answer in 2026. It is available to roughly 85% of UK premises through Openreach plus the altnets, delivers 100 Mbps to 1 Gbps, and starts at around £25 a month. A fibre Ethernet leased line is the right answer when you need symmetric speeds, a 4-hour fix SLA, guaranteed bandwidth or more than 50 concurrent users, with prices from £200 a month for 100 Mbps. 5G fixed wireless access is the right answer for rural sites, temporary sites and as a failover for an existing fibre line.
FTTP business plans on Openreach or an altnet typically cost £25 to £35 per month for 100 Mbps, £35 to £45 for 500 Mbps and £40 to £55 for 1 Gbps on a 24-month contract, ex-VAT. A 100 Mbps fibre leased line runs £200 to £400 per month, a 1 Gbps leased line £350 to £600 per month, both with one-off install fees of £500 to £3,000 unless the supplier offers an install promotion. 5G FWA business plans start at £25 per month for unlimited data and 100 to 300 Mbps.
The Openreach Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) and ISDN platforms are scheduled to be fully retired by the end of January 2027, after a one-year delay from the original December 2025 deadline. Any business still on an analogue phone line, FTTC broadband running over copper or ISDN must migrate to an All-IP solution (FTTP, SOGEA or fibre Ethernet with SIP trunks). Openreach now refuses new orders for legacy products, and most major suppliers have stopped offering them to new customers entirely.
The top tier for UK business broadband in 2026 includes BT Business (broadest coverage and managed services), Vodafone Business (competitive FTTP and 5G bundles), Virgin Media Business (cable plus nexfibre footprint), Zen Internet (highest customer-satisfaction scores in Which? Business surveys), Hyperoptic Business and Community Fibre Business (urban altnets with gigabit at SME prices), and TalkTalk Business (price-led, FTTP-focused). Plusnet stopped taking new business broadband orders in 2024 and is winding its existing base over to BT.
FTTP is a shared fibre connection: your line runs from a local exchange to your premises but contention with other users on the same backhaul means the headline speed is a best-effort figure. A leased line is a dedicated, uncontended fibre with symmetric upload and download, a guaranteed-bandwidth SLA, and a 4 to 6 hour fix time. For day-to-day office use a 1 Gbps FTTP plan often feels faster than a 100 Mbps leased line ; for mission-critical or upload-heavy workloads the leased line is the only product with the guarantees that matter.
SOGEA (Single Order Generic Ethernet Access) is FTTC broadband sold without a phone line, designed as a bridge product during the PSTN switch-off. It still has a place in 2026 for premises where FTTP is not yet available, with speeds of 30 to 80 Mbps and pricing similar to FTTC. However, SOGEA itself is on Openreach's retirement roadmap after PSTN closure, so a SOGEA order taken in 2026 should be viewed as a temporary measure until FTTP arrives in the postcode, not a long-term solution.