The UK business buyer’s guide

Everything you need to buy connectivity, telephony, managed IT/cyber and energy well, what to weigh up, what the jargon means, and the traps that quietly cost businesses money.

What to weigh up

Price and total cost of ownership

The headline rate grabs attention, but the figure that actually bites is the total cost across the full term: install and activation fees, hardware, per-user vs per-site pricing, mid-contract price rises, and what happens at renewal. The cheapest monthly quote can hide other costs.

Reliability, uptime and SLA

Best-effort broadband and hosted VoIP can dip at peak times. A leased line or DIA gives a contractual uptime guarantee (often 99.9%+) and a fix-time SLA backed by service credits. The practical question buyers are weighing is: what does an hour of downtime actually cost us, versus the premium for a guaranteed service?

Contract length, exit terms and renewal behaviour

Terms of 12 to 60 months are common. Early-termination charges, auto-renewal clauses and notice windows all shape how easy it is to move at the end of a deal. Ofcom (telecoms) and Ofgem (energy) set some protections for micro and small businesses, but the detail varies, so it is an area worth getting tailored advice on.

Support quality and responsiveness

For buyers without in-house technical expertise, this is often the real differentiator. UK-based support, a named account manager, response and resolution SLAs, out-of-hours cover. 'Who picks up when it breaks?' regularly matters more than small differences on the monthly bill.

Security and compliance credentials

Cyber Essentials, Cyber Essentials Plus and ISO 27001 are increasingly required to win tenders, satisfy cyber insurers and meet UK GDPR obligations. Buyers are screening MSPs and connectivity providers on certifications and on supply-chain and third-party risk, in line with NCSC guidance.

Switching effort and continuity

Fear of downtime, losing a number or a botched cutover keeps many buyers where they are. One Touch Switch (broadband), number porting and parallel-running a new phone system all reduce that risk. Energy switches are timed around your contract end date.

Scalability and future-proofing

Can it go from 20 users to 200, add sites, and survive the 2027 PSTN/ISDN switch-off? Buyers are increasingly wary of copper-dependent and single-supplier dead-ends, and lean towards full-fibre, cloud telephony and per-user pricing that scales without a renegotiation.

Supplier consolidation / single provider

Plenty of SMEs want one provider covering connectivity, phones and IT (and sometimes energy), purely to cut admin and have a single point of accountability. The trade-off is concentration risk and less price discipline than you get from shopping each contract separately at renewal.

Transparency of fees and commission

In energy particularly, broker commission is built into the unit rate. Since October 2024, commission must be disclosed to all business customers, and buyers increasingly ask to see it.

Reputation, references and reviews

Where technical confidence is low, micro and small buyers lean heavily on Trustpilot and Google reviews, case studies and word of mouth. Mid-market buyers tend to ask for reference customers of comparable size and sector before they'll sign anything.

What matters most depends on who you are

Micro-business owner (1-9 staff, owner-managed)

Sole director or owner-operator (cafe, salon, trades firm, single-site shop, consultancy). Buys everything personally, usually squeezed between customers, with no IT or procurement function to lean on. Price-sensitive and time-poor; trusts word of mouth and whoever got to them last on the phone. Often paying more than they need to across their contracts, or still running an old copper phone line, without knowing it. Legally classed as a 'micro-business', which means extra protections under Ofgem and Ofcom apply.

Lowest credible monthly cost and no nasty surprises on the bill
Minimal hassle and minimal downtime - it must 'just work'
One contact who answers the phone when something breaks
Avoiding being locked in or mis-sold by a pushy broker/agent
Getting off the old landline before the 2027 PSTN switch-off without losing the business number

Office manager / operations lead (SME, 10-50 staff)

Covers HR, facilities and admin all at once, and ends up 'owning' utilities, phones, broadband and the IT support relationship by default rather than design. Holds the renewal dates and supplier contacts in their head (or a spreadsheet). Builds the shortlist; the director signs it off. Juggles several contracts with mismatched end dates and is quietly dreading the moment several of them renew badly at the same time.

Reliable service with a clear SLA and a named account manager
Predictable budgeting - fixed prices, no mid-contract shocks
Consolidating suppliers to cut admin (one bill, one throat to choke)
Staying compliant (GDPR, Cyber Essentials for tenders/insurance)
Smooth switchover with no outage to phones, card machines or internet

Finance director / MD (growing SME, 30-100 staff, multi-site)

Signs off the bigger spend and is more interested in total cost of ownership, contract risk and exit terms than the headline rate. Treats connectivity, telephony and energy as business-critical and will actually read the SLA and termination clauses. Might run a light tender or bring in a broker, and expects commission and uplift to be disclosed upfront.

Total cost of ownership and contract risk over 3-5 years, not just unit price
Uptime guarantees, SLAs and remedies (especially leased-line/DIA)
Clean exit terms - no disproportionate early-termination charges or rollovers
Scalability across sites and headcount growth
Cyber risk, business continuity and insurance/tender requirements

IT manager / IT lead (mid-market, 100-250 staff)

Has the technical knowledge and an in-house remit, but typically co-sources with an MSP for out-of-hours cover, security and project work. Evaluates on architecture and security posture, not just price. Runs proper procurement: asks for references, certifications and a pilot before committing. Owns the relationships with connectivity, UCaaS and managed-security providers directly.

Security posture and certifications (Cyber Essentials Plus, ISO 27001, supply-chain risk)
Architecture fit - SD-WAN, redundancy/failover, integration with Microsoft 365/Teams
Vendor track record, references and financial stability
Clear demarcation of responsibilities (RACI) between in-house and MSP
Performance against SLAs with reporting and the ability to scale up/down

A word on business energy

Business energy in the UK works very differently from home energy, which is part of what makes a comms and IT provider offering it genuinely unusual. There is no price cap on business supply. Instead, businesses sign fixed-term contracts, typically one to five years, negotiated upfront, and you generally cannot switch mid-contract. A bill comes down to unit rate (pence per kWh) multiplied by usage, plus a daily standing charge. Larger sites or those with half-hourly meters also pay capacity charges tied to their agreed kVA. The three numbers any buyer needs before approaching the market are annual usage in kWh, the MPAN (electricity) or MPRN (gas), and the current contract end date. Electricity and gas are contracted separately, so you will have two end dates to track. Timing matters in business energy, and renewals are worth reviewing rather than leaving to run on. Most SMEs buy through a broker or TPI, who earns a commission built into the unit rate. Regulation here is tightening: since October 2024, commission must be disclosed in writing to all business customers, and the government has confirmed that Ofgem will directly regulate TPIs, with broker registration phasing in from around 2027 to 2028. One thing worth being clear on: a Letter of Authority only lets a broker fetch quotes. It is not a contract to buy. So why would an SME want a comms and IT provider handling energy at all? Normally, energy, telecoms, connectivity and IT support are sold by completely different industries, each with its own regulator (Ofgem versus Ofcom), which means businesses end up juggling multiple suppliers, multiple contracts and multiple renewal dates. A single provider across all of them can consolidate billing, keep every renewal date in one place and give the owner one point of contact rather than four. The value is real, but it depends on the provider being transparent about energy commission. If you would rather not work all this out yourself, that is exactly what we are here for: tell us your details and we will line up tailored quotes.

Common ways businesses overpay

Letting contracts roll on without reviewing them, and paying more than you need to as a result.
Buying on the headline price alone and not looking at the full cost over the whole contract, including setup and activation fees and exit charges.
Leaving the PSTN/ISDN switch-off too late and forgetting the non-phone devices sitting on copper lines: alarms, door entry systems, lift emergency lines and some card payment terminals all need migrating before 31 Jan 2027.
Not budgeting time for number porting, which takes 10 to 14 working days, and cutting over with no parallel-running period. The risk is lost calls or a missing business number during the switch.
Signing a Letter of Authority and assuming the deal is done. An LOA only authorises a broker to obtain quotes; the actual supply contract is a separate document that still needs signing.
Overlooking how an energy broker is paid, which can add a hidden margin to the unit rate.
Choosing an MSP without checking certifications (Cyber Essentials, Cyber Essentials Plus, ISO 27001), SLAs, scope boundaries and references, then finding out that security work, out-of-hours cover or project work is all chargeable extra.
Over-buying a leased line when full-fibre broadband would do, or under-buying best-effort broadband when downtime is genuinely costing the business. The connection should match actual uptime requirements.
Over-consolidating with one provider for convenience and creating concentration risk.
Letting energy, broadband, phone and IT contracts all renew on different dates, so renewals get missed and there is little time to compare.
Ignoring resilience and business continuity. A single internet line with no failover (such as SD-WAN or a 4G/5G backup) now carries the phones as well, so one outage takes down both.
On larger sites, paying for the wrong agreed kVA capacity. Too high and you waste money on capacity charges; too low and you risk excess-capacity penalties.

Jargon buster

FTTP (Fibre to the Premises): Full-fibre broadband where the fibre-optic cable runs all the way into the building, not just to the street cabinet. It's the fastest and most reliable mainstream broadband available (often up to 1Gbps+), though it's still a shared, contended, best-effort service rather than a dedicated line.
FTTC (Fibre to the Cabinet): Part-fibre broadband: fibre runs to the green street cabinet, then older copper carries the signal for the last stretch to the premises. Slower than full fibre and being phased out as FTTP rolls out and the PSTN switch-off progresses.
SoGEA: Single Order Generic Ethernet Access. Broadband delivered over the FTTC/copper network but without a separate phone line. It's a common stepping-stone product as the traditional PSTN phone line is withdrawn.
Leased line (Ethernet / DIA): A dedicated, uncontended fibre connection used solely by your business, with symmetric (equal up/down) speeds and a strong SLA. 'DIA' stands for Dedicated Internet Access. Costs more than broadband, but you get guaranteed performance and fix times. The sensible choice for firms where downtime is not an option.
Contended vs uncontended: Contended (broadband) means bandwidth is shared with other users, so speeds can dip at busy times. Uncontended (leased line) means the capacity is yours alone, so performance stays consistent.
Symmetric speed: Equal download and upload speeds (e.g. 100Mbps both ways). Standard broadband is asymmetric (fast down, slow up). Symmetry matters for video calls, cloud backup, hosting and VoIP.
SLA (Service Level Agreement): The contractual promise covering uptime and fault-fix times, with service credits or refunds if the provider misses them. Leased lines carry strong SLAs (e.g. 99.9% uptime, fix within hours); standard broadband is best-effort, with weaker or no guarantees.
PSTN / ISDN switch-off: The retirement of the UK's traditional analogue phone network (PSTN) and ISDN lines, now scheduled to complete by 31 January 2027. Phones, alarms, lift lines and card machines running on copper must move to internet-based (VoIP) alternatives.
VoIP (Voice over IP): Making phone calls over the internet rather than a copper phone line. The umbrella technology replacing PSTN; includes hosted phone systems, SIP and UCaaS.
SIP / SIP trunk: Session Initiation Protocol, the standard that carries voice calls over the internet. A SIP trunk is a virtual phone line connecting your existing on-site phone system (PBX) to the network. It is typically the lowest-cost option per channel, though you keep and maintain a PBX yourself.
Hosted VoIP: A cloud phone system where the PBX sits in the provider's data centre and you use handsets or an app. No on-site phone hardware to maintain. Usually priced per user per month, and the simplest option for firms with no existing system to carry over.
UCaaS (Unified Communications as a Service): A cloud platform combining calls, video, chat, voicemail and presence in one place (e.g. Microsoft Teams Phone, Zoom Phone). Suits firms already working inside those collaboration tools day to day.
PBX: Private Branch Exchange. A business's internal phone system that routes calls between staff and to the outside line. Can be on-site hardware (legacy) or cloud-hosted (modern).
Number porting: Transferring your existing phone numbers to a new provider so you keep them when you switch. Typically takes 10-14 working days and needs to be planned carefully to avoid losing the number during a cutover.
SD-WAN: Software-Defined Wide Area Network. It intelligently manages and combines multiple connections (e.g. fibre plus 4G/5G) across sites, prioritises important traffic and fails over automatically if a line drops. Used by multi-site businesses that need resilience and consistent performance.
MSP (Managed Service Provider): An outsourced IT company that runs some or all of your IT for a recurring fee, covering helpdesk, monitoring, security, cloud admin and projects. Often priced per user per month for a full service.
MSSP (Managed Security Service Provider): An MSP specialising in cyber security, covering monitoring, threat detection and response (SOC), patching and incident response. Some MSPs include this themselves; others bring in a separate MSSP.
Cyber Essentials / Cyber Essentials Plus: The UK government-backed baseline security certification. Cyber Essentials is a self-assessment covering five core controls; Cyber Essentials Plus adds an independent technical audit. Increasingly required to win contracts, satisfy cyber insurers and reassure clients.
ISO 27001: The international standard for information security management. More rigorous and costly than Cyber Essentials, and often expected of larger suppliers or those handling sensitive data.
SOC / SOC 2: A SOC (Security Operations Centre) is a team that monitors for threats around the clock. SOC 2 is a separate US-origin audit report on a provider's security controls, sometimes requested of IT and cloud suppliers.
Standing charge: A fixed daily amount on your energy bill that you pay regardless of how much energy you use, covering grid, network and metering costs. Quoted in pence per day.
Unit rate: The price you pay per unit of energy consumed, in pence per kWh. Your bill works out roughly as (unit rate x usage) + (standing charge x days).
kWh (kilowatt-hour): The unit in which energy is measured and billed. One kilowatt of power used for one hour equals one kWh. Your annual usage in kWh is the key figure for getting accurate energy quotes.
kVA (kilovolt-ampere): A measure of the maximum electrical capacity (supply size) available to your premises, set on larger or half-hourly metered sites. Your available or agreed kVA affects capacity charges. Paying for more than you need wastes money; too little risks penalties.
Deemed / out-of-contract rate: The expensive default tariff you fall onto if you occupy premises with no agreed contract, or let one lapse. It is usually less competitive than a negotiated fixed deal.
Rollover contract: A new fixed-term energy contract the supplier creates automatically when your old one ends, if you do nothing. Often not the most competitive rate. Restricted (not abolished) for micro-businesses.
TPI / energy broker: Third-Party Intermediary. A broker who arranges your business energy contract and is paid via a commission uplift built into your unit rate. Since October 2024 that commission must be disclosed to all business customers. Ofgem is moving to formally regulate TPIs.
Letter of Authority (LOA): A document authorising a broker to obtain your usage data and quotes from suppliers on your behalf. Worth being clear on what it is: an LOA is permission to look, not a contract to buy. You sign the actual supply contract separately.
Half-hourly (HH) metering: Metering that records consumption every 30 minutes, used on larger electricity supplies. It provides accurate usage data and access to bespoke pricing, but comes with capacity (kVA) and other standing charges.
MPAN / MPRN: The unique reference numbers identifying your electricity supply (MPAN, the long 'S' number on your bill) and your gas supply (MPRN). Suppliers and brokers need both to quote accurately.
One Touch Switch (OTS): The broadband switching process (live since 2024) where your new provider manages the whole move and cancels your old service, so you don't end up double-billed or temporarily without a connection.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need a leased line, or is full-fibre (FTTP) broadband enough?

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.

What is the PSTN switch-off and what do I actually have to do before 2027?

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.

How is business energy different from a home tariff, and how do I get the best price?

Business energy is bought on fixed-term contracts (often 1-5 years) negotiated up front. There's no domestic-style price cap, and you can't switch freely mid-contract. Your bill is unit rate (pence per kWh) multiplied by usage, plus a daily standing charge. Timing your renewal well makes a real difference to the price, which is exactly the kind of thing worth getting tailored quotes on. Electricity and gas are usually contracted separately, and you generally can't have overlapping suppliers, so timing the switch matters.

Should I use a broker for energy/telecoms, and how do they get paid?

Brokers (energy 'TPIs') can save time and money, particularly if you'd rather not ring round suppliers yourself. The main thing to understand is how they are paid. In energy, commission is an 'uplift' built into your unit rate. Since October 2024, brokers must disclose commission in writing to all business customers. Also worth knowing: a Letter of Authority only lets a broker get quotes on your behalf. It is not a contract to buy, which you must sign separately.

What does managed IT support cost, and what should be included?

Most MSPs charge a fixed fee per user per month, covering helpdesk support, monitoring, patching, security essentials, backup and cloud (Microsoft 365) administration. Lighter 'pay-as-you-go' or 'co-managed' models cover less. Look for a clear SLA with defined response and resolution times, UK-based support, a proper onboarding process, a named contact, and a written breakdown of what's in scope versus what gets charged extra (projects, hardware, out-of-hours).

What is Cyber Essentials and do I really need it?

Cyber Essentials is the UK government-backed baseline certification covering five core security controls: firewalls, secure configuration, access control, malware protection and patching. The basic level is a self-assessment; Cyber Essentials Plus adds an independent technical audit. You may not be legally required to hold it, but it's increasingly expected to win public-sector and larger private contracts, to satisfy cyber insurers, and to demonstrate UK GDPR 'appropriate measures'. It's also a sensible minimum bar, and a reasonable thing to require of your MSP.

Can I be locked in, and how do I switch without getting stung by exit fees?

Yes, business telecoms and energy contracts have minimum terms and early-termination charges, and the rules around renewals and exit can be fiddly. There are some protections for small businesses under Ofcom and Ofgem, but the detail varies from contract to contract. The simplest approach is to review your options as a contract nears its end rather than letting it run on, and to get tailored quotes so you can see what switching would actually involve.

Should I put telecoms, IT and energy with one provider, or shop each separately?

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. Energy pricing moves independently of the rest.

How do I avoid overpaying - what are the most common ways SMEs lose money here?

It is easy to drift into paying more than you need to across energy, broadband, phones and IT, usually because contracts roll on without being looked at. The simplest way to stay on top of it is to review your options around renewal time rather than letting deals run on autopilot. That is what we are here for: tell us what you have and we will put tailored quotes in front of you so you can see how your current setup compares.

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