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GET THE RIGHT INTERNET SOLUTION FOR YOUR BUSINESS

With the evolving needs of small businesses, it's a great time to check your business is getting the internet speeds and service it needs to evolve. 

Australia’s small to medium businesses (SMBs) are embracing smarter and more sophisticated technology, riding a wave of digital transformation that’s fuelling success and closing the gap with bigger, more technologically advanced businesses.

As small business tech is changing, many SMBs are experiencing an evolution in their internet needs.

To explore how today’s small businesses are evolving, a new study commissioned by nbn1 identified business’ internet usage and categorised their tech requirements as basic, moderate, complex, or advanced. One of the key findings was that more sophisticated businesses with ‘complex’ tech needs potentially have a lot to gain from upgrading their internet services.

So what’s driving the more complex needs of these businesses, and what should you be looking out for if you’re thinking of upgrading your service? 

Cloud computing changing the game for SMB internet

These more sophisticated businesses can be found across a diverse range of Australian industries, including retail, medical and dental, advanced manufacturing, construction, as well as the food, accommodation, and recreation sectors.

They’re taking advantage of a wide range of applications and services - a key factor separating them from businesses with simpler needs. The high level of capability these applications and services offer was once only available to much bigger businesses.

Rather than having to maintain extensive technology infrastructure themselves, these businesses are using solutions delivered from the cloud, via the internet, for functions as varied as accounting, hosting, and managing websites and online services, videoconferencing and phones, social media marketing, security, human resources systems, and remote back-ups.

Using the cloud more means these businesses with complex needs are also consuming and producing larger amounts of data. Their appetite for fast, reliable upload speeds highlights how their internet requirements are different to typical home internet use, which focuses on download-heavy activities like streaming TV and music, web browsing, and shopping. 

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Business internEt plan that meets complex needs

If you're a business with more sophisticated data needs (and multiple users online at the same time), it’s worth considering whether an upgraded plan might suit your business needs.

The study found SMBs with these more demanding tech needs are prepared to pay to get better internet. It also highlighted that the majority (72 per cent) of them have “small business” internet plans, but not every SMB business internet plan is the same. Some are simply home user plans with a different name – and crucially they don’t offer the higher upload speeds and other features that businesses using cloud applications and running more data-intensive operations require.

Designed for today’s business needs, business nbn fibre plans deliver reliable, high-speed services, via nbn Fibre to the Premises (FTTP), and offer higher wholesale upload speeds compared to residential plans with the same download speeds. They also offer the low-latency connections that help make cloud-based services responsive and pave the way for real-time data applications^.

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82%
of complex-needs businesses
say internet connectivity is essential for their operations1

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Source: Ergo Strategy nbn Business Internet White Paper, February 2024

Service and support options to keep businesses connected

Besides speed, businesses may also need enhanced service. But not all “business service” is the same.

For example, the study found only 26 per cent of complex-needs businesses have an enhanced service-level agreement with their provider, which sets out things like expected restoration times in the event of an unplanned outage.

Businesses that rely heavily on internet connectivity need service and support that’s tailored to match. business nbn fibre plans offer service providers support options to help them meet their business customers’ needs, including dedicated onshore support from specialist technicians+. In the case of unplanned outages, service providers can access service restoration target times as low as four hours, 24/7, 365 days a year*, helping them to provide fast restoration times to businesses that can’t tolerate downtime and need to be back up and running as quickly as possible. 

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Giving Australian small businesses the internet connection they need

With sophisticated cloud-based applications becoming an increasingly critical ingredient to the success of many businesses, there is potentially a lot to gain from ensuring you’re on the right internet plan.

Our business nbn fibre plans have been created with the needs of Australia’s small businesses in mind, with higher download and upload speeds compared to our residential plans, reliable internet connection via a Fibre to the Premises connection and dedicated wholesale business support options.

nbn’s wholesale model also means a wide choice of service providers – so there are more options when it comes to finding a solution to meet your needs and budget.

About the Ergo nbn Business Internet White Paper study, February 2024

This study was commissioned by nbn and conducted by Ergo Strategy. Any views, opinions, data or analysis presented in the study are solely those of Ergo Strategy. Ergo Strategy surveyed n=2,000 Australian business internet decision-makers, with most businesses connected to nbn and some connected to competitor networks (in nationally representative proportions). Businesses were sampled and weighted by size in nationally representative proportions. The study involved both survey data and choice modelling. Significance testing was undertaken at 95% confidence. The characteristics and behaviours of this sample may not fully represent the entire population of business internet decision-makers.

Check if your business is eligible

Find out if you're eligible for a full fibre upgrade with access to our business nbn fibre plans.

Sources

  1. Ergo nbn Business Internet White Paper, February 2024

^Your experience, including the speeds actually achieved over the nbn network, depends on the nbn access network technology and configuration over which services are delivered to your premises, whether you are using the internet during the busy period, and some factors outside nbn’s control (like your equipment quality, software, broadband plan, signal reception and how your service provider designs its network). If your service provider has not selected Class of Service High, speeds you experience may be affected by contention on the nbn network, particularly in busy periods.

+These wholesale service features are offered to service providers. The service options providers make available to their end customers depend on what they have productised and the retail solutions they offer.

*The fault restoration times described above are where no site visit is required. Fault rectification time may vary depending on the location of the premises; and all times refer to what we offer to providers – which may differ to what times they offer you. Not all providers offer plans based on the full range of nbn’s enhanced service levels. Not all your faults with a retail service will relate to a fault with the nbn network. Faults may relate to matters in a provider’s network, your premises equipment or network resources being accessed.