Business Broadband

ThemeOne

It looks like I'll be switching broadband for both my own and a relative's house in the near future, and I've noticed some of the business broadband deals look very good.

Can you simply sign up to these as an individual, or do you have to give a business name?

onomatopoeia99

I imagine that they will be happy to take your money, business or not. For all they know you could be a sole trader.

You would be better off asking the supplier though, as none of us can know what the policy of an unnamed ISP would be.

unforeseen

Have you checked that the prices you see are inc VAT.

It is normal to quote business prices ex VAT

kwikbreaks

If by good you mean cheap I seriously doubt that any business broadband is going to be price competitive. They typically cost more for any given package than a home product with the same package would but offer better service level agreements (ie they actually have one).

Neil_Jones

Business Broadband from any provider typically costs more per month than home broadband (and is typically quoted ex VAT so remember to add 20% on if it's not already), however if something goes wrong with the service you are often first priority in the queue to get it fixed, which isn't always the case with home broadband.

That's about the only advantage going that I can think of. The behind-the-scenes infrastructure - the phone line and the exchange and all that - is exactly the same as home broadband.

LazyTyper

The key benefits to business broadband over residential are

• you usually deal with a UK call centre with more qualified agents, and if business/residential share the same call centre business customers get priority
• your broadband traffic typically receives higher priority over residential
• you should receive "enhanced care" level for your broadband, usually promising 7 hour, 20 hour or 40 hour repair time, depending on which option you go for
• static IP addresses become available (sometimes at a charge)
• some business ISPs offer "Annex M" which sacrifices some download speed to gain a little more upload speed (useful where FTTC is not available and your line length is reasonable) - but I think BT do not offer this to their retail customers

As others have already mentioned, business pricing is usually quoted excluding VAT and you usually pay more for business broadband than residential broadband.

I doubt there is a requirement to be an actual business, and if they insist, you could just say you are a consultant or something.