Choosing a business broadband is not as simple as going with the majority choice for a provider and plan. Every business has its own unique aspects, from the size of the team to the speed requirements for various tasks and processes to security and protection of the network. 

The right plan can help your employees work fast and collaborate seamlessly, driving productivity and protect any sensitive business data they may be working with, while a wrong choice can lead to frustration, inefficiencies and potential security issues.

Here are five questions to help you make the decision.

1. How fast should your internet be?

We all know how frustrating it can be to be slowed down by poor internet speeds when we need to look up some information urgently on the internet. In a business context, this can result in drops in productivity and employee morale. Think of a media company where employees have to share large video files or an accounting firm which deals with numerous spreadsheets. Both will have their own expectations and needs for how fast their internet needs to be and if these are not met, work can slow down, leading to inefficiencies and frustration.

On the other hand, if your employees are able to do their work, communicate and collaborate on documents in quick time on the internet, they will be less rushed and feel better. 

In addition to the internet speed, take note of your bandwidth requirements as well. Bandwidth is the amount of data that can be transferred over the network in a given amount of time. The higher the bandwidth, the more data that can be transferred at once, and the faster the connection will be. Think of all the different tasks that your team will be involved in and how much bandwidth they will need. For example, video conference calls will need 2 to 4 Mbps per person while file sharing will roughly take up 2 to 5 Mbps overall.

Examine what connections speeds are on offer in a plan and whether these are sufficient for your employee’s needs. 

Tip: For small teams of 7 or more, speeds of 50-75 Mbps can generally work while for medium sized businesses with more employees, 75-100 Mbps can be sufficient, even with heavy audio and video streaming needs.

2. Will you need dynamic or static broadband?  

You could choose from two types of business broadbands – static IP and dynamic IP.  

With Dynamic IP broadband, you use dynamic IP addresses, which means the IP address changes every time you connect to the internet or every time you send a message over the internet. Dynamic IP addresses can be reused any time a new device is added to the network. For example, a new employee's laptop will automatically be assigned a fresh IP address and you won’t have to manually delete the old one. Another benefit of dynamic addresses is that they make it harder for a hacker to target your devices. 

Static broadband is one that offers an static IP address, which means that it does not change even if you reboot your server or add a new device to the network. For example, if you host your own web and email servers, you will be better off with a static IP broadband.

Singtel provides SMBs with both static and dynamic high-speed fibre broadband plans with internet speeds between 100Mbps and 1Gbps which can be accessed by more than 35 users concurrently. 

3. How many users will the broadband be serving?

When you are starting out, you may only need to cater for an office with a few employees. But keep in mind that as you grow your team, more users will be connecting to the internet concurrently. This can result in congestion and reduced speeds.

According to a survey by the Centre for Creative Leadership (CCL), fewer than one in 10 leaders in Singapore expect employees to be on-site 100% of the time. 

There is also the consideration of hybrid work, which is becoming more common in Singapore. To enable that, you will need to think about which broadband plan can accommodate all your team members, including their essential communication and video conferencing usage. 

You may also need to be flexible with your bandwidth, to accommodate additional employees who wish to work in the office or to cater to bigger offices. In this case, a dual broadband network may be a good option, such as Singtel’s Fibre Broadband Plus, which gives you a faster and wider WiFi coverage with a second Internet access. 

4. How critical is security for you?      

As is the case when you adopt any technology in your business, security should be an important consideration. This is true even when choosing your broadband plan, which determines how much and how fast data will travel through your network from outside and vice versa. For SMBs, security is increasingly becoming an important consideration due to the number of cyber-attacks that they are being targeted with today.

A study by Cyber Security Agency (CSA) of Singapore showed that ransomware cases rose 54% in 2021 compared to 2020, with SMBs bearing the brunt of these attacks, especially those from sectors as manufacturing and IT. 

Thus, it is crucial to take all possible measures to ramp up your security, especially if you have sensitive information that cannot be revealed to third parties. Check if your broadband plan comes with security features such as protection from malicious sites, firewalls, and antivirus.

Moreover, if you are using the cloud for data storage or application delivery, you will need to think about additional measures to protect your network. Singtel's Software-defined WAN (SDWAN) can help you simplify network deployment, with its on-premises and cloud-based security capabilities as well as threat intelligence for security monitoring.

5. How much technical support will you get as a customer?

One last consideration is how much support you will get as a customer of the broadband provider. If there are connection issues during working hours, you want to be sure that you can rely on support that will work to bring things back to normalcy, so that your team can continue their work uninterrupted. Look at the service level agreements to see what is the extent of the support you are eligible to receive. 

Singtel's Business Broadband solutions come with 24/7 technical support so you can always reach out for help in case of any issues, anytime anywhere.