By turning the ordinary phone line into a high-speed Internet connection, broadband has played a major role in the digital communications revolution. Today, you can install broadband at most locations in the UK for an affordable setup fee and low monthly payments, but what exactly does broadband mean? How do you choose a service that will fulfil your business' requirements, and what new developments are in the pipeline?
You may have seen some companies advertising consumer broadband services with promised speeds as high as 24Mbps (megabits per second). That would mean you could transfer around 150 megabytes of data every minute - certainly an attractive prospect. Such speeds are made possible by a new technology known as ADSL2+, which builds on the existing ADSL system. Companies such as THUS, through its Demon brand, are currently trialling ADSL2+ and it should become available across the country by next year. For the moment, ADSL connections can achieve speeds of up to 8Mbps. However, it's important to understand that this depends on the length of wiring between your site and the local exchange and on the levels of congestion within the telephone network. In practice, only a minority of users will achieve the theoretical maximum speed.
Contention issues
ADSL stands for 'asymmetric digital subscriber line', and the 'asymmetric' part refers to the fact that data can be sent to you from the exchange, where the heavy equipment is installed, much faster than you can send it back. As a result, a service providing up to 8Mbps 'downstream' (the speed at which you can download web pages and files) will have an 'upstream' maximum of about 800kbps - only one tenth as fast. That's worth bearing in mind if you're planning to transfer large files between offices. As downstream speeds increase, upstream speeds don't rise as quickly.
The other major factor in broadband performance is 'contention': the number of users competing for the same bandwidth into the exchange. Low-cost consumer services typically have high contention ratios, meaning that up to several dozen homes could be fighting for the same 8Mbps of bandwidth. If your neighbours decide to download a movie at the same time as you, everyone slows down.
Quality of service
While no provider can guarantee performance over the telephone network, the policy applied by THUS to its Demon Business Broadband range, for example, is to aim for a relatively high quality of service rather than cramming in more users. Demon Business Broadband options offer high traffic prioritisation and therefore more predictable performance.
Quality of service issues are of growing relevance as businesses find new ways to exploit high-speed Internet access. Online applications, operated through a web browser rather than by installing software on the user's own PC, are increasingly popular, while company intranets are used to share ever richer content, including multimedia presentations and interactive training materials. Technologies like VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) and videoconferencing applications are becoming commonplace, demanding reliable bandwidth. In addition, many companies are finding it simpler and more cost-effective to outsource IT functions such as Microsoft Exchange servers. These solutions will only work effectively with connections that are reliable as well as fast.
The good news is that today's broadband speeds are already sufficient for most small to medium sized businesses. An office of, say, five users, networked with a simple wired or wireless router, could share a 2Mbps connection quite effectively for everyday web browsing, file sharing and even voice and video messaging.
In the future
And what of the future? In 2009, ADSL2+ combined with new fibre-optic cabling installed by BT from exchanges to streets, known as 'fibre to the curb' (FTTC), will bring 24Mbps to most of the country. Around 2010, VDSL (very high data rate DSL) should increase this to 52Mbps, although upstream speeds are likely to stick at 2Mbps. And by 2012, fibre-optic cabling right into your premises (FTTP) could bring upstream speeds of 100Mbps. Better start planning what you're going to do with all that bandwidth.