What is a whole of market broadband supplier?  Well, in simple terms, it means that the supplier you are using, is able to compare the quality and pricing of connections across the whole of the broadband market.  The supplier is able to take advantage of the best of all networks when it comes to broadband or connectivity for your business.  This is much the same as a whole of market mortgage broker for example, who is able to provide mortgages from all of the big players such as HSBC, Halifax and Nationwide.

That’s a difficult question to answer.  Let’s start by looking at a supplier that only supplies connections from one particular wholesale provider such as BT or Virgin Media (ie a supplier that is NOT whole of market).  On the one hand, the supplier would be able to get to grips with the good things about the connections that they are providing.  Where the connectivity is strong and where it is weak.  They would only have one set of products to understand, so they can easily become an expert in their individual area.  On the other hand, if that individual wholesale provider started to get problems with their network, or was providing poor customer service, they would be stuck with them as they haven’t built up relationships with other wholesale providers.  Added to that, in the event that one customer’s connection went down, it would be quite likely that all of their customers would be down at the same time and the supplier might get swamped by customers reporting problems.

Moving on to a supplier that IS whole of market.  The drawback might be that they aren’t able to fully comprehend every single detail about every single connection provided by every different wholesale provider.  However, to combat this, they should have good product information, about all of the services available to them, recorded, which ought to help them to answer any question that arises.

The good part though, is that they are able to look across the whole of the market, find internet connections or leased lines on your behalf for your business, to ascertain what the best option for your business is, based on many different aspects such as price or specification.  There are hundreds and hundreds of providers, as well as each provider having many different products and types that they offer, so across the market, there could be thousands of options available for your business at the required premises.  Whatever your requirement is, they should be able to provide a connection that meets your needs both in terms of technical requirements but also in terms of budgetary requirements.  They should be able to find you shorter term contracts if that is what you require, or higher specification connections, if that’s what you need.  You can read more about the different types of business broadband by following that link <!

So to answer the question “is whole of market good or bad”, in our opinion, the answer is Good on balance.

OK, so we’ve told you all about the different ways that providers like The Digital Group operate.  Your choice now is to work out what type of provider you want to work with.  You’ll then need to decide what your primary requirements are in terms of specification and budget.  So what are you waiting for?  Crack on and get a plan in place as soon as you can to make sure you’ve got the right connectivity in place for your business.  Ask your current Broadband Provider to supply you with the details of what your current connection offers in terms of speed, service level agreements and price.  This will make it easier when approaching your chosen connectivity partner as you’ll be able to tell them what you’ve currently got and what you think you might need over the coming months and years, to allow them to make the best recommendation possible.

If your current provider isn’t able to provide you with a report, ask them why!  And if you don’t get the answer you like, don’t hesitate to get in touch with us and we’ll work with you to help you to understand your needs.  Drop us a message via our Contact page or give us a call today on 01142 203000!