All businesses, big and small, are becoming more reliant on a connection to the rest of the world via the internet.
Whether you use Microsoft 365 for your email, a hosted solution for your phone calls, or backup your documents with a cloud-based solution: internet connectivity comes in many different forms.
However to most people the various internet products available are no more than a list of acronyms, such as FTTC, EFM or ADSL. To those outside the telecoms and IT world, the terms mean very little.
That’s where SECAura Solutions comes in. Our mission is to find the correct internet solutions for your business, based on your exact requirements.
Before we make suggestions for which product you need, we will ask you lots of questions, for example:
- Do you need a service level agreement? In essence, a service level agreement means you get a guaranteed fix time or your money back.
- Do you use services like Microsoft 365 or hosted applications such as One Drive or DropBox?
- How many people do you need internet access for?
- How much of your business relies on the internet?
These are just some of the factors that make choosing the correct internet connection vital to your business.
Even plain old, standard ADSL (often described as Broadband) has many different options. That’s before we start to look at the other solutions and mass of other acronyms.
That’s why we have dedicated pages to give you more information about the various products available.
Of course, if you don’t have the time (or inclination) to learn about acronyms such asEFM or EoFTTC and would rather we simply devised the right solution for you, please call us. One of our friendly team will take the time to get to know what your business needs are. We’ll then provide you with our recommend solution, jargon-free!
Business Broadband – ADSL & FTTC
Many people, including suppliers, categorise many different internet products under the term ‘Business Broadband’.
Whilst we agree that simple can be good, we also think it is important to differentiate products.
That’s because each product set has particular features and that’s before you look at the capabilities of different exchanges or cabinets (the green boxes on the side of the road).
The product your business can access is dependent on the exchange your premises is connected to and sometimes which cabinet.
So what are the differences?
ADSL
Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line, commonly known as ADSL, comes in different flavours.
ADSL Max, an old-fashioned and slower option, is generally only now used in rural areas and its speeds are much slower than other available technology. ADSL Max has a maximum download of 8mb and upload of 1mb, although to achieve those speeds your premises needs to be very close to the exchange.
ADSL2+ is essentially the mainstream ‘business broadband’ product, capable of download speeds of 24mb and upload of 1.4mb.
Annex M is a variant of ADSL2+. This product allows higher upload speeds than the standard ADSL2+, achieving up to 3.3mb. In our opinion, Annex M is a great product for smaller businesses needing a better upload speed. For example, if you are using Microsoft 365 or hosted applications Annex M will provide nearly double the upload speed, therefore allowing a huge improvement in productivity.
All of these products are exchange dependent. If you want to know what your exchange can offer please call us and we can give you the information you need.
FTTC
Fibre to the Cabinet (FTTC) is the entry-level fibre product for ‘business broadband’ but to be able to access it the exchange, and your cabinet (the green box), both need to have been upgraded.
FTTC is a great product for a business that just needs faster speeds, with download speeds of 80mbps and upload speeds of 20mbps achievable.
However, if your business is 100% reliant on internet connectivity, we would recommend looking at products then come with a service level agreement, such as Ethernet over Fibre to the Cabinet (EoFTTC) or Ethernet Leased Line.