XLN Business Broadband Review

XLN offer both superfast part fibre and full fibre broadband options for small businesses on a nationwide basis in the UK.

As a dedicated small business broadband provider, XLN offer companies a range of additional services, from public WiFi add-ons to paid-for faster response times to faults.

Businesses can also opt for a cloud voice service as well as a 4G mobile broadband back-up system.

At a glance

Who is XLN Business broadband best suited for?

As a business-specific broadband provider, XLN offer a range of additional services suitable for small businesses.

XLN Business broadband is best suited to:

• Business who make a lot of outgoing or incoming calls, with optional cloud voice services
• Small businesses heavily reliant on their phone line or Internet connection and who are happy to pay for faster fault resolution times, and access automatic 4G back-up add-ons
• Small-sized businesses that only need download speeds up to a maximum of 330Mb, so where the connection is only being shared between 1 - 5 people
• Coffee shops, cafes and pubs that want to offer their customers a low-cost compliant guest WiFi service

XLN Business offer UK-based 24/7 support with additional service level assurances that can be paid for to ensure uptime for critical business applications.

It's also possible for businesses to add services like an automatic 4G mobile broadband back-up service, as well as optional static IP addresses, and a guest WiFi service for compliant Internet sharing with customers.

What does XLN Business broadband offer?

XLN Business offer three full fibre broadband options, and a superfast part fibre plan for those yet to be passed by Openreach FTTP, which is now over 16 million premises.

Small businesses can choose from download speeds of 80Mb, 160Mb, and 330Mb, although upload speeds will be slower as the Openreach network is asymmetrical.

As part of a standard plan, customers also get:

• UK-based support available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week
• A Technicolor DGA0122 business-grade wireless router
• Fault response time of 3 working days at no extra cost
• A minimum broadband speed guarantee, so businesses can exit their contract if the service fails to deliver

The current prices for XLN Business broadband for businesses in full fibre enabled areas are:

	Package	Broadband	Monthly price	Upfront price	Contract term
Go	80Mb Full fibre	80Mb average	£17.95 for 12 mths, then £37.95	£9.99	24 months
	Offer: Save over 40% for 12 months
Go	160Mb Full fibre	160Mb average	£31.95	£9.99	24 months
	Offer: Save over £10/mth
Go	330Mb Full fibre	330Mb average	£34.95	£9.99	24 months
	Offer: Save £15/mth

Those in part fibre areas yet to be passed by Openreach FTTP can access superfast speeds of up to 80Mb:

	Package	Broadband	Monthly price	Upfront price	Contract term
Go	Superfast 80Mb	80Mb average	£27.95	£9.99	24 months
	Offer: Save £10/mth

Businesses can opt to add a phone line to any of XLN's business broadband packages, with their Cloud Voice service costing £15 per month, and including unlimited free calls to UK landlines and UK mobiles.

Additional services also include static IP addresses, 4G back-up services, and a public guest WiFi service which allows businesses to share their Internet connection safely with customers.

So, to recap, the optional extras available with XLN Business broadband include:

• Cloud Voice VoIP phone line with inclusive UK calls
• 4G mobile broadband back-up service (using the Three network)
• Guest WiFi to allow compliant Internet sharing with customers
• Enhanced care with faster fault resolution times
• Business Assurance covers the cost of fault fixing if Openreach deem the fault to be within your premises or with your equipment

Cloud Voice

Small businesses that need a phone line, either to make or receive calls, will need to take XLN's Cloud Voice service.

Cloud Voice is a Voice over IP (VoIP) service, which means it uses the broadband connection to send and receive call signals. It can however, be used with a standard telephone number and businesses can even port an existing number to the service.

Businesses will get a free mobile and desktop app, which can be used to make and receive calls, as well as services to auto-answer calls, including a menu system to direct customers to the right person.

Cloud Voice costs from £15 per month on top of an XLN Business broadband subscription, but includes unlimited calls to UK landlines and UK mobiles at any time, and an optional international call plan.

There is one broadband and phone bundle with discounted pricing, which offers full fibre broadband at 80Mbps with Cloud Voice including unlimited calls:

	Package	Broadband	Monthly price	Upfront price	Contract term
Go	80Mb Full fibre + Unlimited calls	80Mb average	£32.95	£9.99	24 months
	Offer: Save £10/mth + 50+ Exclusive free features

Guest WiFi

XLN offer a free public WiFi service that can be added to any of their broadband plans for an additional cost of £15 per month (+ VAT).

It's perfect for businesses like coffee shops, cafes and pubs, who want to offer customers a free WiFi service. XLN say the service is easy to setup and works with the provided XLN router.

Once setup, customers can freely access the WiFi with their own unique email address based login.

The benefits of the guest WiFi add-on ensure businesses offer their customers a legally compliant guest network, removing the need for password sharing.

XLN also say their research found 77% of customers were more likely to visit businesses with free WiFi, while 68% were more likely to return.

Business resilience

As a small business specialist, XLN Business offer a number of additional services to help ensure companies stay online and connected when they need to.

There are three different add-ons available which can benefit a business's resilience, including:

• Mobile 4G Back-up
• Enhanced service-level care
• Business Assurance

The Mobile 4G Back-up service costs £10 per month and provides businesses with a mobile broadband device that takes over if the fixed-line connection ever goes down for more than 30 seconds.

It works in conjunction with the router to switch the connection from the broadband line to the 4G mobile broadband signal instead, helping to ensure business critical applications stay online.

XLN use the Three mobile network to provide their business 4G mobile services.

XLN also offer additional care levels to business customers to provide faster response times if there is a fault on their broadband line:

In addition to these faster fault resolution times, businesses can also pay upfront to cover the possibility faults are as a result of their own equipment.

When Openreach engineers are called out to fix faults, if the problem is found to be with equipment on the business premises, they'll charge call-out and service fees, as much as £192 plus £144 (+ VAT) per hour.

However, the business assurance add-on ensures these costs are covered if this happens. It costs £6.29 (+ VAT) per broadband line.

What broadband speeds does XLN Business offer?

Average broadband speeds given by XLN 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 XLN Business are accurate for daytime use when companies are using and reliant on their connections.

Businesses can choose from:

Superfast part fibre connections are available to 98% of premises across the UK, while Openreach full fibre has now passed over 16 million premises, which is more than 50% of the UK.

Where a business can get full fibre it's unlikely they'll be able to choose to sign up for the part fibre plan as Openreach aim to move customers over to newer technologies.

XLN also promise customers a minimum guaranteed speed, although they don't publish what this will be, so businesses will have to sign up to find out.

We do know that XLN are signatories to Ofcom's Voluntary Code of Practice for Business Broadband Speeds, which ensures broadband providers promise to:

1. Be transparent and accurate information on speeds as point of sale
2. Provide detailed information after the sale and on the website
3. Manage speed-related problems
4. Offer the right to exit the contract without penalty if speed problems can't be resolved
5. Deliver the objectives of the Code through appropriate processes

In practice, this means that businesses should receive a personalised speed estimate during the sales process and XLN should work to identify and resolve any broadband problems a client is having.

XLN Business Router

XLN provide all of their customers with a Technicolor DGA0122 router regardless of the package they sign up to.

The Technicolor DGA0122 router is a business-grade device that supports dual-band WiFi 5, with dedicated ports for VoIP services.

It has four gigabit Ethernet LAN ports for wired connections, and have 5 internal antennae across the 2.4GHz and 5GHz wireless channels.

The main specifications of the XLN Business router are:

One particular point worth making is XLN make clear that businesses must use this router provided to ensure their service remains compatible, and it's not permitted for businesses to supply or use their own router.

Customer Service

XLN have won several awards for customer service in the past three years.

In 2023, they scooped the gold award in the Customer Satisfaction category at the Customer Experience Awards, also taking gold for the Best Contact Centre and silver for Best B2B Customer Experience.

While awards don't necessarily reflect the everyday experience of business customers, they are a good benchmark for how the provider is viewed by customer service professionals, and XLN's awards are a good marker on that score.

Another good way of checking how a business broadband provider performs is by looking at their reviews on public sites like Trustpilot. On that score, too, XLN have an excellent reputation:

• They have over 24,400 reviews with an average TrustScore of 4.4 out of 5
• They are rated as Excellent overall
• 80% of their reviews say they are Excellent with a further 5% saying they are Great
• 13% of respondents say they are Bad

Among the positive reviews, there are some common themes:

• Rapid customer service
• Little or no waiting times
• Helpful customer service advisers
• Professional service

As with all reviews on sites like TrustPilot, customers vary between the extremes of highly satisfied and very unsatisfied.

Some firms solicit reviews from their customers whether they are happy or unhappy, and TrustPilot say XLN have done that. In addition, they have responded to 94% of negative reviews on the site.

Since we don't have Ofcom complaints data for companies providing business broadband, we don't have much independent information to go on about the customer service offered by a provider. Although awards and reviews can't tell the whole story, they are a decent way of assessing a company's reputation before signing up.

Verdict: Is XLN Business broadband any good?

XLN are a quality business broadband provider, with the added bonus that they concentrate solely on SMEs rather than pursuing the domestic market or courting big business.

This means their services are tailored to the services small and medium businesses need, and services can be layered on top of each other to create a full-service telecommunications and payment solution.

We like:

• Competitive pricing with some bundles available for broadband & phone discounts
• They offer a VoIP service with unlimited calls to UK landlines and UK mobiles
• Public Wi-Fi is an excellent option for cafes and other hospitality locations
• Internet-reliant businesses can access service add-ons to ensure downtime is kept to an absolute minimum
• XLN runs on the Openreach network so are available in the vast majority of locations
• They have award-winning customer service

It's worth bearing in mind however, some services are charged on a per line basis which could add up for companies needing multiple lines. Maximum download speeds top out at 330Mb too, which some businesses may find slow now gigabit broadband is becoming so much more widely available.

Overall however, XLN are a great option for small businesses looking for a comprehensive broadband service with a range of business-centric add-ons to suit most circumstances.