Connections
Four options. Which one is right depends on what the business actually does over the connection, not on the headline speed in the advert.
Fibre all the way to the building. The right answer for most small businesses where it is available — good speeds in both directions at a fraction of a leased line's cost.
The trade-off is that bandwidth is shared with other users in the area, so a busy afternoon can feel slower than a quiet morning. Fix times are best-effort rather than guaranteed.
Where full fibre has not reached you yet. Broadband without the analogue phone line bolted to it — one service, one bill, and nothing depending on a network that is being retired.
Slower than full fibre, particularly on upload, and worth treating as a stepping stone rather than a destination.
Bandwidth that is yours alone, the same speed up as down, with a contractual service level and a committed fix time from the carrier.
Genuinely needed by businesses where an outage stops trading, or that move large volumes of data. Many businesses are sold one when good full fibre plus failover would serve them better for less — we will tell you which camp you are in. Installation is measured in months, not days.
A mobile connection that takes over automatically when the primary line fails, so the business keeps working while the fault is chased.
Pound for pound the highest-value connectivity purchase most small businesses can make, and the one most often overlooked until the first full day spent without internet.
Cloud working, backups and video calls all push data outwards. Upload is the number that decides whether a Teams call holds up while a backup runs.
Business broadband is usually best-effort. A leased line carries a committed fix time. Knowing which you have bought matters on the morning it breaks.
Shared bandwidth means the advertised speed is a ceiling, not a floor. It is why the connection feels fine at 8am and tired at 3pm.
Needed for some remote access arrangements, hosted equipment and a few line-of-business systems. Not needed by most businesses — we will say which you are.
Connectivity contracts roll. We track the dates and tell you before a decision becomes automatic.
Carrier-dependent and postcode-dependent. Broadband is usually weeks; a leased line is usually months. We quote what the carrier commits to, never a hopeful figure.
A leased line often needs the building owner's permission for civil works. This is a common and avoidable cause of a delayed installation.
The part nobody asks at the point of sale. Buying through us means you report it once and we deal with the carrier, including the chasing.
Availability, speeds, lead times and prices are carrier-dependent and vary by postcode, so none are published here. Where a service level or fix time applies, it is the carrier's commitment and is quoted as such — we do not present a carrier's service level as ours.
Networks
A fast line into a poor network is a fast line into a poor network. Most complaints about “the internet being slow” turn out to be the Wi-Fi, the switch, or a firewall doing less than anyone realised.
WatchGuard, supplied, configured, monitored, patched and licensed by us. It controls what reaches your network, filters malicious traffic and content, and gives visibility of what is actually happening on the connection.
HPE Aruba access points, positioned for the shape of the space, the walls it actually has and the number of devices using it — with separate guest access that cannot see your systems.
HPE Aruba switching, specified for the number of devices and the growth you expect, from the same vendor as the wireless — so the network inside the building is one system rather than three that happen to be plugged together. Structured cabling arranged where the building needs it.
Guest devices, staff devices and operational equipment kept apart, so a visitor's laptop or a warehouse scanner is not sitting on the same network as your finance system.
The line and the equipment on it watched continuously, so a problem is usually identified before somebody walks over to report it.
A firewall's security services are subscriptions, and they lapse. A firewall with expired subscriptions is a box doing far less than its owner believes — so we track the renewals as part of the service.
Secure Remote Access
The way small businesses give staff access to internal systems has changed. If yours still runs on an appliance and a client that nobody enjoys using, there is a simpler and more secure answer.
Hardware to maintain and patch, client software that fights people, and a flat network once someone is connected — so a single compromised laptop can reach everything. On tablets and phones the experience is usually worse still.
Zero-trust network access. Each user and device connects directly and securely to only the specific systems they are permitted to reach — nothing is exposed to the internet, and in most cases no server is needed on site at all.
Businesses with staff working from home or from customer sites, with equipment or systems that have to stay reachable, or with no server on site to host traditional remote access in the first place.
An assessment of what genuinely needs reaching, access rules defined per user or group, rollout across devices including mobiles and tablets, then the legacy arrangement decommissioned rather than left running alongside.
We publish no customer network detail, addressing, topology or access rules — here or anywhere else on this site.
Which One You Get
The choice is made on your circumstances and the licences you already hold, not on what we happen to resell. We tell you which one we are recommending and why — including where the answer is that you are already paying for it — before anything is ordered.
For businesses already invested in Microsoft 365.
Access is governed by the same sign-in rules as everything else you do — so there is no second set of policies to keep in step, and no extra console for anyone to watch.
It depends on holding the right Microsoft licensing. We check what you already have before recommending it.
For reaching specific machines or equipment rather than a whole network.
Right where devices are mixed or unmanaged, where kit sits on a customer site, or where there is nothing on your premises to connect back to. Quicker to set up, and easier on tablets and phones.
It is a separate subscription and a separate thing to administer. Worth it when the fit is right, which is why we do not fit it by default.
Either way, the outcome is the same: people reach only the systems they are permitted to reach, and nothing is exposed to the internet.
Site Moves and New Sites
Connectivity lead times drive the entire timetable of a move. A leased line ordered late is the single most common reason a business opens in new premises with no working internet — and no amount of goodwill shortens a carrier's installation queue.
Headcount, systems, how people will actually work in the space, and an allowance for the growth you are planning rather than the growth you have had.
What is available at that postcode, what each option costs, and how long each takes to install. The lead times are the part that shapes every other date.
The connection is ordered before anything else, along with any wayleave or landlord consent it depends on. Everything else can be compressed; this cannot.
Structured cabling, containment and the comms cabinet — sequenced around the building works rather than after them.
Firewall, switching, Wi-Fi and segmentation configured and tested before anybody relies on them.
Someone present on the day, with the old site kept live until the new one is proven rather than switched off to hit a date.
A written record of what was installed, how it is configured and what it costs to run — the document the next change is built from.
The All-IP Transition
The deadline already moved once, from December 2025, and the practical effect of the extension has been to give everyone a false sense of room. Engineer availability and number-porting slots tighten sharply in the months before the date, so the businesses that migrate early choose their timing and the ones that leave it take whatever slot is left.
This affects considerably more than desk phones. Anything plugged into a traditional phone socket is in scope.
We audit the lines you are paying for and what depends on them, then get the connectivity underneath onto something that will still exist in 2027 — which for most businesses means full fibre or SoGEA, with failover.
For the equipment itself — alarms, lifts, door entry, card terminals — the replacement is your alarm or equipment provider's to make. We will tell you what needs a conversation with them, and when, rather than let you discover it after the line stops answering.
For the phones themselves, we move businesses onto Microsoft Teams Phone — which for anyone already on Microsoft 365 is usually the shortest route off the old network.
Switch-off date verified 5 September 2026 against BT and Openreach guidance. This date has moved before; it is reviewed quarterly and on any carrier announcement.
Telephony
Yes, we do telephony — and for a business already on Microsoft 365 the answer is usually Microsoft Teams Phone rather than a separate phone system with its own supplier, its own bill and its own app.
Proper business phone numbers inside Teams — the application your staff already have open. Calls to and from the outside world, on a laptop, a mobile, a headset or a desk handset.
You keep your existing numbers. Porting them across is part of the work.
Businesses on Microsoft 365 who are facing the switch-off, coming to the end of a phone system's life, or paying for a PBX and a mobile fleet that do not talk to each other.
It suits hybrid and field-based teams particularly well, because the desk number simply follows the person.
Analogue and ISDN lines, an on-site PBX, and in many cases a separate mobile arrangement. One less appliance in the cupboard and one less supplier to chase.
Call queues, auto-attendants and shared reception numbers are configured as part of the build, not left for you to work out.
Calls run over your internet connection, so the connection and its failover matter more than they did before. We would not put a business onto Teams Phone without looking at the line first — which is exactly why this sits on the connectivity page.
It also needs the right licensing, and it does not solve alarms, lifts, door entry or card terminals — those need their own answer from the equipment provider, and we will tell you which of yours are affected.
Licensing requirements and calling plan options are confirmed in writing at the time of quotation, because the right combination depends on the Microsoft 365 subscriptions you already hold.
How We Supply It
The reason to buy connectivity from the people who support what runs over it: when something is slow, there is no argument about whose problem it is.
You do not deal with the carrier. We place the order, track the installation, handle the appointments and tell you when a date has moved — including when the news is unwelcome.
You report it once. We diagnose whether the fault is the line, the equipment or the network, raise it with the carrier and do the chasing — which is most of the work and all of the frustration.
Connectivity appears as its own line on the same invoice as your support and licensing, so you can always see what the connection costs separately from the service around it.
It works best alongside a support agreement, because the diagnosis above depends on us seeing the network too. Where you only want the line and the carrier handling, say so and we will quote it that way.
Questions
Less than most people are sold. What matters is upload as much as download, how many people are on video calls at once, and whether backups run during the working day. We size it against what the business does, then quote what is available at your postcode.
With failover in place, a mobile connection takes over automatically and most people notice only that things feel slower. Without it, you are waiting on the carrier's fix time — which on business broadband is best-effort rather than committed.
Months rather than weeks, and it varies by postcode, by how much civil work is needed and by whether a wayleave is required. We give you the carrier's committed date and tell you as soon as it moves. Anyone quoting you a confident figure before surveying the site is guessing.
Yes. We will support the network and equipment regardless of who supplies the line. You lose the single-point fault handling, since we cannot raise a fault on a service we do not hold — but plenty of customers start this way and move the line at renewal.
Most businesses do not. You may if you have hosted equipment that something connects into, or a line-of-business system that expects a fixed address. It is a small cost, so the honest answer is that it is worth having only if something actually needs it.
Usually the Wi-Fi. A single router covering a whole floor, thick walls, or forty devices on a domestic access point will all look like “slow internet” while the line itself is perfectly healthy. We measure both before recommending anything.
Yes. Zero-trust remote access gives each person access to only the systems they are permitted to reach, without exposing anything to the internet and usually without any server on site. It is generally simpler for the user than the VPN it replaces.
While you are still choosing between buildings. What is available at each postcode, and how long it takes to install, is genuinely a factor in which premises you should take. After the lease is signed, we are working around a date rather than planning towards one.
Yes — Microsoft Teams Phone. For a business already on Microsoft 365 it means calls in the app your staff already use, your existing numbers kept, and one fewer supplier. It does depend on a sound internet connection, so we look at the line before recommending it.
Not if they dial out over an analogue line. Replacing that equipment is your alarm or lift provider's job, not ours — but we will audit what you have plugged into a phone socket and tell you what needs a conversation with them, and roughly when.
Next Step
What you have now, what you are paying for it, what it should be, and what the alternatives would cost. Written down, with lead times against each option.
Four fields. We reply within one working day.
Related
Where the firewall, switching, Wi-Fi and remote access are monitored and maintained day to day.
Learn MoreSite moves, network builds and remote access changes delivered against a written statement of work.
Learn MoreWhere connectivity contracts, renewal dates and the all-IP deadline land on a costed roadmap.
Learn MoreTalk to someone about a line, a move, or a connection that has never been right.
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