Choosing the right broadband for your business is one of those decisions that looks simple until you’re deep in a contract you didn’t fully understand. Whether you’re running a small office on the South Coast or managing a team spread across multiple sites, your internet connection underpins almost everything — phones, payments, cloud software, video calls.
This guide cuts through the jargon. You’ll know exactly what type of connection you have, what you actually need, and when it makes more sense to upgrade to a leased line.
The short answer
- FTTP (full fibre) is the gold standard for business broadband — fast, reliable, and future-proof.
- FTTC gets fibre to the street cabinet but then uses old copper into your building — slower and more vulnerable to faults.
- A leased line gives you a dedicated, uncontended connection with guaranteed speeds and an SLA — essential for VoIP-heavy or cloud-dependent businesses.
- The 2027 PSTN switch-off affects FTTC connections that rely on the old copper network — now is the time to plan your upgrade.
- VoIP calls need roughly 100 Kbps per concurrent call — your broadband needs to handle this comfortably alongside everything else.
What is business fibre broadband? (and why it’s different from residential)
Residential broadband is designed for households that mostly download — streaming, browsing, social media. Business broadband is built around different priorities: reliability, upload speed, and support when something goes wrong.
The key differences show up in the small print. Business contracts typically include static IP addresses (essential for VPNs, remote access, and some VOIP setups), faster fault repair times, and dedicated customer support channels. You’re not sharing a call queue with millions of home users when your connection drops on a Tuesday morning.
Upload speeds matter far more for businesses than most people realise. Video calls, VoIP, cloud backups, and syncing files to shared drives all require healthy upload capacity. A residential connection optimised for downloading Netflix will feel sluggish when your team is trying to upload large files or run back-to-back video meetings.
Contention ratios are another area where business and residential products diverge. A residential broadband connection might share capacity with hundreds of other users on the same exchange. Business-grade products use lower contention ratios — meaning less competition for bandwidth during peak hours.
Finally, business contracts come with Service Level Agreements (SLAs). These define exactly how quickly your provider will respond to a fault and get you back online. For any business where downtime means lost revenue, an SLA isn’t optional — it’s insurance.
FTTP vs. FTTC: which type of fibre does your business actually have?
Not all fibre broadband is the same. Understanding what you actually have — or what’s available at your premises — is the starting point for every other decision.
FTTC (Fibre to the Cabinet) runs fibre optic cable from the exchange to the green street cabinet near your building. From the cabinet to your premises, it uses the existing copper telephone line. This “last mile” of copper is where speed and reliability take a hit. The further your building is from the cabinet, the slower your connection. Typical FTTC download speeds range from 30 Mbps to 80 Mbps, with upload speeds often stuck below 20 Mbps.
FTTP (Fibre to the Premises) runs fibre all the way from the exchange directly into your building. There’s no copper in the chain. Download speeds commonly reach 500 Mbps to 1 Gbps, and upload speeds are genuinely usable — often symmetrical with download on higher tiers. FTTP availability has expanded significantly across the UK in recent years, including across much of the South Coast.
To check what’s available at your address, Ofcom’s Connected Nations checker and Openreach’s postcode checker are both reliable starting points. Your provider can also run a line check before you commit to anything.
If your building still has FTTC and FTTP isn’t yet available, you’re not without options. Ethernet First Mile (EFM) and dedicated leased lines remain available regardless of local fibre availability — we’ll cover those shortly.
How fast does your business broadband need to be?
Speed requirements depend on what your team actually does online, not what sounds impressive in a brochure. A rough rule of thumb: allow 10 Mbps of download capacity per 10 users for standard office use — email, web browsing, light cloud applications.
That figure rises quickly once you factor in video calls and VoIP. A single HD video call consumes around 3–4 Mbps. VoIP calls are lighter — approximately 100 Kbps per concurrent call — but that adds up fast if you have a busy sales team all on calls at the same time.
Here’s how that plays out in practice. A 20-person office where half the team is on VoIP calls at peak times, and the other half is in video meetings, needs a connection that can comfortably deliver 300–400 Mbps of combined upload and download capacity. Factor in cloud software syncing, file transfers, and the occasional large video upload, and a 100 Mbps FTTC connection starts to feel cramped.
Upload speed is the figure most business owners overlook. If you’re using hosted VoIP — which means your calls travel out over your internet connection — upload capacity matters as much as download. Most FTTC packages offer asymmetric speeds heavily weighted towards download. FTTP and leased lines offer far better upload performance.
The honest answer to “how fast do I need?” is: more than you think you need today, because your usage will grow. Signing an 18 or 24-month contract on a speed that barely meets your current needs is a decision you’ll regret by month six.
Business broadband vs. leased line: which is right for you?
Business broadband — whether FTTC or FTTP — is a shared service. Your connection runs over infrastructure that other businesses and households also use. During peak periods, you’re competing for capacity. This is contention, and even the lowest business-grade contention ratios don’t eliminate it entirely.
A leased line is a dedicated, uncontended connection installed exclusively for your business. The bandwidth is yours alone, around the clock. Speeds are symmetrical — the same upload as download — and come with a guaranteed uptime SLA backed by financial penalties if the provider misses it.
The trade-off is cost. Business broadband typically runs from £30 to £80 per month depending on speed and provider. Leased lines start at around £149/month with VoIPninjas as your direct provider and scale up based on speed and installation complexity.
For many small businesses, business-grade FTTP broadband is genuinely sufficient — especially if your VoIP usage is modest and you can tolerate occasional slowdowns. The cost difference is significant, and a well-specified FTTP connection handles most workloads reliably.
The case for a leased line becomes compelling when your business crosses certain thresholds. We’ll cover those in more detail in a dedicated section below.
The PSTN switch-off and your broadband connection
BT is switching off the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) by the end of 2027. If that sounds like a phone problem rather than a broadband problem, read on — because it directly affects FTTC broadband.
FTTC connections use the copper telephone line for that final stretch from the cabinet to your premises. That copper line is part of the PSTN infrastructure. When the switch-off happens, connections that depend on the old copper network will need to migrate to a new technology.
For businesses still on FTTC, the 2027 PSTN switch-off is a deadline — not a recommendation. If you haven’t moved to FTTP or a leased line by then, your provider will be making decisions for you. That’s not a situation any business owner wants to be in.
FTTP and leased lines are both fully future-proof. They don’t rely on the PSTN infrastructure at all. If you’re already on FTTP, the switch-off has no direct impact on your broadband connection. If you’re still on FTTC, start planning your migration now — availability in your area may affect your timeline, and installation lead times can stretch several weeks.
The switch-off is also the moment to make sure your phone system is ready. Traditional analogue phone lines are disappearing alongside FTTC infrastructure. This is the natural point to move to VoIP over broadband — a hosted phone system that runs over your internet connection and costs significantly less than maintaining old copper lines.
What to look for in a business broadband contract
The headline speed and monthly price are the figures that get advertised. These are the details worth scrutinising before you sign.
SLA response and repair times. A residential SLA might promise fault repair “within five working days.” A business SLA should offer same-day or next-business-day response, with a clear process for escalation. Check whether the SLA covers the router and on-site equipment as well as the line.
Static IP addresses. If you run a VPN, host any services in your premises, or use certain business phone systems, you need a static IP. Many residential-style broadband products rotate IP addresses dynamically. Business contracts should include at least one static IP as standard, with additional addresses available.
Contention ratios. Ask your provider what contention ratio applies to your connection. Residential broadband might operate at 50:1 or higher — 50 users sharing capacity designed for one. Business-grade products typically run at 20:1 or lower. Leased lines are uncontended by definition.
Contract length and exit terms. Most business broadband contracts run 12, 18, or 24 months. Understand what early termination costs, and whether the provider will allow you to upgrade your speed tier mid-contract if your needs change.
Support availability. Check whether support is available outside standard office hours. If your business operates evenings or weekends, a provider whose technical team finishes at 5:30pm on a Friday is a liability. Confirm whether support is UK-based.
Installation timeline. FTTP installations can take four to eight weeks depending on whether external civils work is needed. Factor this into your planning, especially if you’re moving premises or facing a switch-off deadline.
When to consider a leased line instead
Business broadband works well for many SMEs. But certain situations make a leased line not just appealing — genuinely necessary.
You have 10 or more staff who all need reliable internet simultaneously. Shared broadband under heavy concurrent load shows its limits. A leased line removes contention from the equation entirely.
Your business runs on VoIP. If your team makes and receives a high volume of calls through a hosted VoIP system — whether on VoIPninjas Samurai or Shogun plans — call quality is only as good as the connection it runs on. Jitter, latency, and packet loss on a contended broadband connection translate directly into dropped calls and poor audio. A leased line eliminates those variables.
You’re cloud-dependent with no tolerance for downtime. If your CRM, stock management, payment processing, or any other business-critical system is cloud-hosted, an internet outage is a business outage. A leased line comes with a guaranteed uptime SLA and faster fault response than any broadband product.
You need symmetrical speeds. Businesses that regularly upload large files — design agencies, architects, video production, engineering firms — need upload capacity that matches download. Leased lines are symmetrical by design.
You’re supporting multiple offices or remote workers through a VPN. A leased line with a static IP and guaranteed bandwidth makes VPN performance consistent and manageable in a way that contended broadband never quite does.
VoIPninjas provides leased lines as a direct provider from £149/month, with speeds from 100 Mbps to 10 Gbps. That price includes a managed router, professional installation, and a guaranteed uptime SLA. See leased line options to get a quote for your premises.
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Frequently asked questions
What’s the difference between business and residential fibre broadband?
Business fibre broadband typically includes static IP addresses, lower contention ratios, faster fault repair SLAs, and dedicated business support. Residential products are designed for downloading at home, not for running phone systems, VPNs, and cloud software simultaneously across a team. You also generally get a more straightforward route to a real engineer when something goes wrong.
Is FTTC fibre broadband affected by the 2027 PSTN switch-off?
Yes. FTTC uses the old copper telephone line for the final stretch between the street cabinet and your building. That copper infrastructure is part of the PSTN, which BT is switching off by the end of 2027. Businesses on FTTC will need to migrate to FTTP or a leased line before that deadline. Check the PSTN switch-off guide for a full breakdown of what’s changing and when.
How much bandwidth does VoIP need?
Each concurrent VoIP call requires approximately 100 Kbps of upload and download capacity. So if you have 20 staff and expect a peak of 15 simultaneous calls, you need at least 1.5 Mbps dedicated to voice — before anything else your team is doing online. In practice, you want considerably more headroom than the bare minimum. Poor broadband is the most common cause of call quality complaints on hosted VoIP systems.
What speed of business broadband do I need?
A useful starting point: 10 Mbps per 10 users for standard office tasks — email, web, light cloud applications. Add 3–4 Mbps per concurrent video call, and around 100 Kbps per VoIP call. Then add headroom for growth. For most offices of 10–30 staff, a 300 Mbps to 500 Mbps FTTP connection handles everything comfortably. Beyond that, a leased line becomes the more reliable choice.
When does a leased line make more business sense than broadband?
The case for a leased line is strongest when you have 10 or more staff relying on the connection simultaneously, when VoIP call quality is business-critical, when your operations depend on cloud software with no acceptable downtime, or when you need guaranteed symmetrical speeds for uploads. Leased lines cost more than broadband, but the guaranteed SLA, uncontended bandwidth, and dedicated support often justify the difference. VoIPninjas offers leased lines from £149/month as a direct provider — get a quote to see what’s available at your address.