Compare UK business connectivity providers

For most micro and small businesses doing general browsing, email, video calls and a handful of cloud apps, FTTP full-fibre broadband is fast and affordable enough. A leased line (dedicated/DIA) makes sense once you have around 30+ users, need guaranteed upload speeds, run public-facing or hosted services, or simply cannot afford downtime. What you get with a leased line is uncontended capacity, symmetric speeds and a real uptime/fix-time SLA. The practical test: work out what an hour of internet downtime costs your business, then weigh that against the leased-line premium.

The old analogue phone network (PSTN) and ISDN lines are being switched off, completing by 31 January 2027. Anything running over a traditional copper line will stop working. That includes desk phones, but also fax machines, alarm systems, door entry, lift emergency phones and some card payment terminals. You need to move phones to an internet-based option (hosted VoIP, SIP or UCaaS like Teams Phone), keep your existing numbers by porting them, and audit any alarms, lifts or card machines that use a phone line. Don't leave it late: porting takes 10-14 working days and you'll want to run old and new in parallel for a couple of weeks.

Yes. Business telecoms and energy contracts have minimum terms and early-termination charges. For telecoms, Ofcom requires that small businesses (10 or fewer employees) aren't auto-renewed into a new minimum term without active consent, and that exit terms be fair and proportionate. Since January 2025, you can usually exit penalty-free if a provider raises prices mid-contract beyond what was clearly disclosed. To switch cleanly: note every contract's end date and notice period, give notice in writing on time, use One Touch Switch for broadband, and port your phone numbers. For energy, switch as your contract ends to avoid deemed rates.

Bundling connectivity, phones and IT (and sometimes energy) with one provider cuts admin, gives you a single point of contact and simplifies billing. That's genuinely useful for time-poor small firms. The trade-offs are concentration risk (one outage or one dispute affects everything) and usually weaker pricing than shopping best-of-breed at each renewal. A common middle path is to consolidate the closely related stuff (internet, phones, IT) with one trusted provider while keeping energy separate and competitively tendered. Energy pricing moves independently of the rest and benefits from regular market testing.