BT Business broadband review: Almost the full package

When it comes to broadband, businesses will normally choose reliability over everything else. BT not only has the pedigree of being the biggest player in the British broadband industry but, according to our survey, it’s also one of the most reliable of the major business broadband providers.

BT earned Highly Commended awards for reliability and speed, with only Vodafone able to pip BT in either of those categories. And BT was Highly Commended for value, too.

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Perhaps one of the reasons that BT is so highly regarded for reliability is because it leans on the mobile network EE to provide 4G backup should the main broadband line go down. As we’ll explore further in the package reviews below, that fallback option doesn’t come at a massive premium, and it gives home workers and small businesses some peace of mind that they won’t lose a day’s work if builders should accidentally slice through a fibre cable on their road, or some such.

However, as with its consumer broadband offering, BT is found wanting when it comes to customer service. In our survey, only Virgin Media O2 received worse customer service scores among the four major business broadband providers. However, it has to be said that BT’s scores are far from disastrous – 89% of customers still declared themselves satisfied with the customer service on offer.

So, with decent scores across the board, let’s explore what BT has to offer businesses.

BT Business broadband review: Essential

BT has a refreshingly simple lineup of tariffs for business customers, although how much you’ll pay chiefly depends on the speed of the connection you’re able to receive. So, if you’re in an area that’s fibre-to-the-cabinet and only able to receive up to 76Mbits/sec, you can expect to pay prices similar to those in the table above. But if you’re in a full-fibre area and you want the maximum 900Mbits/sec download speed, you’ll be looking at almost £20 per month more. Of course, there are also speed/price tiers in between those two extremes.

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BT Business broadband review: Enhanced

The primary difference between the Essential and the Enhanced tariffs is the addition of 4G backup to the Enhanced. This comes in the form of an additional 4G router, called Hybrid Connect, which you must connect to the supplied Smart Hub router in order to benefit from automatic fallback to the 4G network should the fixed-line connection fail. On the more expensive packages, this 4G connection can also provide around 20Mbits/sec of additional bandwidth, even when your fixed-line connection is working, although you’ll only really feel the benefit of that on slower connections.

It’s not the only difference between the two, and it’s worth noting that the Enhanced packages also include superior tech support as well as one static IP address – which could be handy if you want remote access to files stored on your home/office network.

BT Business broadband review: Essential/Enhanced + Phone Line

Both the Essential and Enhanced tariffs have a separate package that includes a phone line that uses the new digital voice service that will become increasingly common as BT switches off the old copper-based telephone network. It does have advantages, such as being able to pick up calls on your mobile when out of the office, but also means that, should the broadband go down, you lose the phone, too.

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BT business broadband review: Coverage

Over its long and storied existence, BT has evolved to a point where the telephone cables, ducts, cabinets and exchanges that connect nearly all the homes and businesses in the UK to the national broadband and telephone network are built and maintained by Openreach, a wholly owned subsidiary of BT Group plc. Openreach then ensures that all the telecom providers have access to that network.

Consequently, BT relies on the Openreach network for its fixed-line coverage. More than 95% of the country is now within reach of a fibre-to-the-cabinet service that offers up to 76Mbits/sec download speeds. Then there’s the much faster full-fibre network that’s required to hit those 900Mbits/sec download speeds, but that’s currently only available to around ten million homes and businesses. Openreach is aggressively rolling out the full-fibre network and aims to reach 25 million premises by the end of 2026.

When it comes to providing mobile backup, BT relies on the EE network, which it acquired in 2016. You can check your EE network coverage here.

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BT business broadband review: Performance and customer satisfaction

BT is well regarded by its business customers when it comes to the reliability of the connection, with just under nine out of ten customers reporting that they were happy with the reliability of their BT business broadband line. That’s enough to win the company a Highly Commended award in this category, and a figure only marginally bested by Vodafone.

It’s another Highly Commended award for speed, where 89% of BT customers were satisfied with the speed of their connection. BT’s increasing shift to full-fibre connections, where speeds almost hit a gigabit per second, are clearly paying dividends for the company’s business customers.

Value for money is decent, too, according to our survey. Just shy of 80% of BT customers were happy with the value they get, again second only to Vodafone.

Unfortunately, customer service remains a minor sore point. Although 89% of BT customers were broadly satisfied with the customer service they received, that was still the second lowest score among the providers we surveyed.

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BT business broadband review: Verdict

What are the two factors most businesses will be looking for from a broadband connection? Speed and reliability. And BT is well regarded in both those categories, making it a strong contender for your broadband business.

If BT could only improve the very minor levels of dissatisfaction with its customer service, it would be pushing for an overall winners award, but it’s still a very strong showing from the country’s biggest broadband provider.

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