BT Business offers a range of part and full fibre broadband packages suitable for small to medium businesses, including in offices as well as hospitality venues.
Business customers can access broadband speeds up to 910Mbps on average, with options to upgrade equipment and service to suit all reliance levels.
Digital phone lines with Cloud Voice Express is also available, with a low-cost unlimited anytime UK call plan.
At a glance
| Monthly price | From £22.95 |
|---|---|
| Setup cost | £29.95 - £49.95 |
| Minimum term | 24 months |
| Annual price rise | £4/mth in April |
| VAT | Prices exclusive of VAT |
| Broadband connection | Part fibre and full fibre |
| Download speeds | 38Mb, 76Mb, 145Mb, 300Mb, 500Mb, 910Mb |
| Router | Smart Hub 2 / Smart Hub 3 |
| Phone line | £3 - £5/mth |
| Anytime calls | £7/mth (inc. UK mobiles) |
| Support | UK-based 24/7 |
| Static IP | £5/mth |
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Full fibre broadband speeds available up to 910Mbps | More expensive compared to rival business broadband plans |
| Options to upgrade equipment and service levels | Full fibre availability limited to the Openreach network, though this now passes over 16 million premises |
| Anytime call plan is low priced | |
| UK-based 24/7 support on all service levels |
Who is BT Business broadband best suited for?
BT Business is suitable for a range of small to medium-sized businesses with full fibre broadband speeds available up to 910Mbps.
Businesses can customise packages based on the equipment provided, whether they want a 4G mobile back-up service (Hybrid Connect), or additional WiFi boosters to extend coverage (Complete WiFi).
Therefore, making the service suitable for businesses who are reliant on a steady internet connection for productivity, as well as those who may be working from larger offices.
For businesses that have a lot of incoming and outgoing calls to make, it's also possible to add a digital phone line to all plans, and unlimited UK calls are very reasonably priced at just £7 extra per month.
BT also include some additional services at no extra cost too, including guest WiFi, which is suitable for coffee shops, cafes and other hospitality businesses who want to offer free wireless for their customers.
Business who take Enhanced or Pro plans will also get a free static IP address, while those on Essential plans can pay an extra £5 per month if they need one.
Ultimately, most businesses will find BT Business broadband suitable, with a wide range of package options to choose from and nationwide availability.
What does BT Business broadband offer?
BT Business broadband offers both superfast part fibre connections with availability to 98% of premises across the UK, and full fibre broadband to more than 16 million premises so far passed by Openreach's new FTTP network.
Businesses in full fibre enabled locations can choose from speeds up to 910Mbps on average, with other options including 145Mbps, 300Mbps, and 500Mbps.
There are further options too, with companies able to choose from a broadband-only or a broadband and phone plan, as well as either an:
- Essential plan: With a router only
- Enhanced plan: A router, plus an automatic 4G mobile back-up device
- Pro plan: A router, automatic 4G mobile back-up, and up to 5 mesh WiFi booster discs
BT Business Essential
Essential plans are the lowest priced broadband packages from BT Business and these are the current prices:
| Package | Broadband | Monthly price | Upfront price | Contract term | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
Essential 150 | 145Mb average | £34.95 | £29.95 | 24 months |
|
Essential 300 | 300Mb average | £39.95 | £29.95 | 24 months |
|
Essential 500 | 500Mb average | £44.95 | £29.95 | 24 months |
|
Essential 900 | 910Mb average | £49.95 | £29.95 | 24 months |
Businesses who take a BT Business Essential plan will also get access to BT's 5 million WiFi hotspots, guest WiFi to offer customers free wireless, with controls over what content users access and notifications for any malicious sites.
Other services are available on Essential plans at an additional cost, however, these are also combined for free in the Enhanced and Pro plans, for example:
- Add a static IP for £5/mth (included with Enhanced and Pro)
- Hybrid Connect for £8/mth (included with Enhanced and Pro)
- Complete WiFi Plus for £8/mth (included with Pro)
- Next-day fault fixes for £6/mth (standard care is repairs within 2 working days) (included with Pro)
BT Business Enhanced
For an additional £10 per month, businesses can upgrade from Essential broadband to Enhanced broadband.
Here are the prices:
| Package | Broadband | Monthly price | Upfront price | Contract term | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Enhanced 150 | 145Mb average | £44.95 | £29.95 | 24 months |
|
Enhanced 300 | 300Mb average | £49.95 | £29.95 | 24 months |
|
Enhanced 500 | 500Mb average | £54.95 | £29.95 | 24 months |
|
Enhanced 900 | 910Mb average | £59.95 | £29.95 | 24 months |
Enhanced includes a Hybrid Connect device, which provides an automatic back-up service through EE's 4G mobile network.
Hybrid Connect works automatically with the BT Smart Hub, and the connection will switch to EE 4G if the fixed-line broadband goes down at any time.
BT Business Enhanced also includes:
- Free expert setup worth £100
- 1 static IP address (worth £5/mth)
- Enhanced IT support with your own 24/7 IT team
BT Business Pro
Pro adds Complete WiFi to the business broadband service, so companies get both Hybrid Connect and Complete WiFi, which boosts the wireless coverage by adding up to 5 mesh booster discs.
Complete WiFi also works seamlessly with the Smart Hub router, extending the network across a larger area so mobile devices can remain connected to the same network.
BT Business Pro packages currently cost:
| Package | Broadband | Monthly price | Upfront price | Contract term | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Pro 150 | 145Mb average | £54.95 | £29.95 | 24 months |
|
Pro 300 | 300Mb average | £59.95 | £29.95 | 24 months |
|
Pro 500 | 500Mb average | £64.95 | £29.95 | 24 months |
|
Pro 900 | 910Mb average | £69.95 | £29.95 | 24 months |
BT Business Pro also includes:
- Free expert setup worth £100
- 1 static IP address (worth £5/mth)
- Enhanced IT support with your own 24/7 IT team
- Prompt Care, with next-day fault fixes
- Additional WiFi security controls to manage the devices connected to the network
Here's a quick recap of the services available with each of the BT Business broadband plans:
| Essential | Enhanced | Pro | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Minimum Speed Guarantee | Included | Included | Included |
| WiFi Hotspots | Included | Included | Included |
| Guest WiFi | Included | Included | Included |
| WiFi Content Controls | Included | Included | Included |
| Web Protect (protection from malicious sites) | Included | Included | Included |
| WiFi Security Controls | No | No | Included |
| Standard Care (repairs within 2 working days) | Included | Included | Included |
| Dedicated IT support team | No | Included | Included |
| Expert Setup | £100 (one-off charge) | Included | Included |
| Next-day fault fixes | £6 | £6 | Included |
| Static IP address | £5 | Included | Included |
| Hybrid Connect | £8 | Included | Included |
| Complete WiFi Plus | £8 | £8 | Included |
Digital Line
With all of these plans, businesses can also add a digital phone line for between an extra £3 and £5 per month.
The digital line includes the Cloud Voice Express (CVE) app, which allows businesses to use their business landline number on a mobile app, and answer and make calls wherever they are.
The Unlimited UK call plan includes a phone handset as well as anytime calls to both UK landlines and UK mobiles. Priced at just £7 per month (+ VAT), it's a very affordable way for businesses to make and receive a high number of calls.
The only caveat is the inclusive calls are only for 60 minutes, after which you'd need to hang up and redial, or be charged on a per minute basis.
What broadband speeds does BT Business offer?
Average broadband speeds available with BT Business are based on the busiest time of the day for businesses - which is 12pm to 2pm.
At least 50% of a provider's customer base must receive their advertised average speeds during peak times, and so the speeds given by BT Business are accurate for daytime use when companies are using and reliant on their connections.
Businesses in full fibre enabled areas passed by Openreach FTTP, which is over 16 million premises across the UK, can choose from the following speeds:
| Average download speed | Average upload speed | |
|---|---|---|
| Full Fibre 150 | 145Mb | 27Mb |
| Full Fibre 300 | 300Mb | 45Mb |
| Full Fibre 500 | 500Mb | 68Mb |
| Full Fibre 900 | 910Mb | 104Mb |
For those not yet reached by the full fibre rollout, the speeds available in part fibre areas across the remaining 98% of the UK are:
| Average download speed | Average upload speed | |
|---|---|---|
| Fibre 38 | 38Mb | 9Mb |
| Fibre 76 | 76Mb | 18Mb |
BT Business also provide all of their customers with a minimum speed guarantee, which is available across all of the Essential, Enhanced and Pro plans.
The minimum speed guarantee basically promises an absolute minimum download speed, which if the service falls below this, the customer is free to exit their contract and leave without having to pay any early termination fees.
Speeds are usually required to have fallen below the minimum for at least 3 consecutive days and BT have been unable to fix the issue within 30 days of being notified of the problem.
Minimum speed guarantees are likely to vary between locations, especially for those in part fibre enabled areas. However, looking at two test locations, we received the following minimum speed guarantees:
| Minimum guaranteed download speed | Average download speed | |
|---|---|---|
| Part Fibre 38 | 36.8Mb | 38Mb |
| Part Fibre 76 | 48.85Mb | 76Mb |
| Full Fibre 150 | 100Mb | 145Mb |
| Full Fibre 300 | 240Mb | 300Mb |
| Full Fibre 500 | 425Mb | 500Mb |
| Full Fibre 900 | 700Mb | 910Mb |
BT Smart Hub
All of the BT Business full fibre broadband plans now come with the BT Smart Hub 3, launched in July 2023, it's an updated version of their standard router and supports the WiFi 6 protocol.
Companies in part fibre areas will be provided with the previous BT Smart Hub 2, unless they upgrade to a Pro plan. It's a reasonable device, but is looking a little dated considering it was first launched in 2018.
Here's how the two devices look side-by-side:
| BT Smart Hub 2 | BT Smart Hub 3 | |
|---|---|---|
| WiFi protocol | 6 (802.11ax) | 5 (802.11ac) |
| WiFi band | Dual-band | Dual-band |
| Antennae | 7 | 7 |
| 2.4GHz | 3x3 | 3x3 |
| 5GHz | 4x4 | 4x4 |
| Ethernet LAN | 4 x 1Gb | 4 x 1Gb |
| Security | WPA2 | WPA3 |
So, there hasn't been a huge step forward with the BT Smart Hub 3, but support for WiFi 6 will suit businesses with any newer laptops or devices that will be able to connect at faster speeds.
Customer Service
BT offer all business customers a dedicated UK-based 24/7 support line, with options to access enhanced support available as well.
Enhanced and Pro customers both benefit from a dedicated IT support team available to them 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
It's also possible to upgrade any plan to Prompt Care with next-day fault fixes for just £6 extra per month, or this comes included with all Pro plans at no extra cost. Standard fault resolution time is 2 working days, so businesses reliant on their connection can get priority support.
Of course, Enhanced and Pro plans come with Hybrid Connect, so if a fixed-line fault does occur, the 4G mobile broadband back-up will automatically provide the router with a connection so staff can remain productive.
At Trustpilot, BT Business has an Average rating or 3 out of 5 from over 2,900 reviewers. 30% of those who reviewed the company said their service was Excellent, while 61% did rate them Bad.
In comparison, other business broadband providers have fared better, with Vodafone Business scoring 4.5 out of 5, TalkTalk Business scoring 4.8 out of 5, and XLN Business scoring 4.4 out of 5.
Verdict: Is BT Business broadband any good?
BT Business broadband offers a good selection of service choices for small to medium sized businesses, including an automatic 4G back-up device and up to 5 WiFi extenders to provide wireless coverage throughout larger office spaces.
While BT Business isn't the cheapest option, businesses do get additional services with the Enhanced and Pro plans, as well as options to upgrade to next-day fault resolution and dedicated IT support teams for less than ten pounds a month.
While the main plan options include bundling Hybrid Connect or Complete WiFi services, business customers who opt for BT will also get:
- UK-based 24/7 support, including options to upgrade to dedicated IT support teams
- Free access to over 5 million WiFi hotspots around the UK
- Free guest WiFi service to share the connection with customers
- 2-day fault resolution times, with options to upgrade to next-day fault fixing
- Access to a static IP address
BT Business is available nationwide, with their full fibre packages now passing over 16 million premises across the UK.
They are slightly more expensive than rival providers, but customers may feel reassured by signing up with the retail division of the main Openreach network, as well as gaining access to additional services and features on offer that may otherwise have to paid for.
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