We’re hearing a great deal about superfast broadband these days, but what we’re hearing doesn’t always sound very relevant to business. Yes, your children may well enjoy the chance to download music quickly and easily, and to watch high-definition movies and TV replays on anything that happens to be connected to the internet, but neither of those is exactly a business priority!
However, it will be good for faster email, faster web searches, and better, more efficient connection with ‘cloud-based’ internet services. And that’s why BT is investing £2.5 bn in a programme to upgrade its exchanges all across the UK in the course of this year.
Even so, you’ll have to wait: it will take time to install fibre optic connections to the street cabinets on each upgraded exchange, leaving just a short length of conventional telephone line connecting your home or your business to a superfast service.
‘Fibre to the cabinet’, or FTTC, promises download speeds of 40 or 80 Megabits per second – right now you’ll be lucky to achieve 8 Megabits per second even on ADSL broadband.
To get more you currently need a leased line, giving speeds around 10 Mbit/s for an installation cost of more than £1,000, and a monthly rental over £800. But a typical 40 Mbit/s FTTC service will cost just £99 to connect, with a monthly rental of around £35!
Better yet, a single high-speed broadband line could carry up to 100 simultaneous phone calls – so if you used FTTC broadband and a VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) phone system instead of an ISDN line you could cut costs by up to 80%.
A smaller company could use a single line for both voice and data – and effectively eliminate telecom line costs entirely!
Use this Superfast Broadband checker site to get some idea of when high-speed broadband is coming to your [UK] area.
Exchange and cabinet upgrades are already starting, so contact us at Foxhall Solutions to discuss the implications for your business…
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