Choose the Broadband Service to Suit Your Business Needs

Apart from mobile broadband, there are essentially four main types of business broadband services available to businesses. Depending on your business requirements, one may be most suitable than others.

Business ADSL2

ADSL2 is a broadband service that delivers an internet connection over existing copper lines, which is usually shared with a telephone service. The upload and download speeds are variable and depend on the quality of the copper line and the distance from the local exchange. The speed also depends upon the local exchange capacity and the number of connections being requested at any given time. On average, download speeds of around 12Mbps and upload speeds of around 0.6 Mbps are achieved.

Business grade ADSL2 connections differ from the cheaper residential services as the IP Network Carrier regulates and limits the congestion to provide more consistent speeds to business customers.

Business ADSL2 is suitable for businesses that don’t require fast upload speeds and are using the broadband service primarily for general internet usage.

SHDSL and Mid Band Broadband

SHDSL and Mid Band Broadband is a high performance business broadband service that's delivered over existing copper lines but is more advanced than ADSL2. Unlike ADSL2, the copper lines used by this type of service cannot be shared with a telephone service.

SHDSL enables symmetrical data transmission, which means it delivers set upload and download speeds. Once installed, speeds of up to 80 Mbps are set and don't depend upon any congestion as the link is not shared with other users at the exchange level. This is referred to as 1:1 contention ratio.

SHDSL is ideal for businesses that require a business broadband connection for ‘mission critical’ applications including Web Hosting, IP Telephony, Hosted PBX, VPN Connections and Video Conferencing. It's also ideal for businesses that require greater upload speeds, and is an excellent alternative to fibre.

Business Fibre

Fibre Broadband is a high performance business broadband service that's delivered over a fibre optic cable and doesn't use the existing copper network. Fibre optic cable allows for data to be transmitted at the speed of light which means that the broadband service can achieve much greater speeds.

Provided that a fibre optic cable is available, it's ideal for businesses that require superior performance and the highest speed available. Similar to SHDSL, both upload and download speeds are set and this type of business broadband connection is ideal for applications that require symmetrical data transmission and greater upload speeds.

Fixed Wireless Broadband

Fixed Wireless Broadband uses microwave technology to transmit data and delivers a high speed internet service using a mix of fibre and wireless technologies. It's ideal for businesses in remote locations and broadband constrained areas, and is a genuine alternative to high bandwidth SHDSL and Fibre Internet. Similar to Business Fibre, it can deliver symmetrical speeds of up to 1,000 Mbps.