The future of connectivity has arrived in Cardiff. It’s recently been confirmed that 96% of the Welsh capital is now set up for ultrafast internet, which means businesses across the city can benefit from the fastest, most reliable connectivity currently available. The advance of ultrafast in Cardiff puts it well ahead of many national rivals and makes it one of the best-connected cities in the UK.

All of which is a boon for businesses in the area. Ultrafast internet is lightning quick and cost-effective, and it couldn’t have come at a better time. With lockdown restrictions easing, we’re all waking up to a world in which connectivity is more important than ever.

A growing reliance on connectivity

As a business, you may have been supporting a remote workforce for the last 18 months or so, and many organisations will now embrace remote or hybrid working for the longer term. That means equipping flexible workers with the cloud apps and services that allow them to work effectively from anywhere, and on any device. A growing reliance on the cloud demands faster, more robust connectivity.

At the same time, we’ve all got used to video calls and e-commerce during the pandemic, and those innovations aren’t going away. Increasingly, businesses of all sizes rely on smooth, stutter-free video and audio conferencing, along with the latest cloud-based collaboration tools.

Depending on your business, you may also be taking more online orders and cashless payments. As face-to-face contact has declined, you may have redoubled your digital marketing efforts.

New pressures on bandwidth

All of this puts pressure on bandwidth, and there’s more to come. In 2025 BT is switching off the ISDN telephone network, meaning every business will have to channel its telephony through the internet. In the meantime, digital transformation is gathering pace, with more and more organisations experimenting with new cloud services and technologies based on VR, Big Data and the Internet of Things.

Which all means that the connectivity that met your needs before the pandemic may no longer be enough. In fact, it could be holding you back. Whatever the size of your business, smooth video calls, fast file downloads and better online experiences for customers are now the basic building blocks of a fully functioning organisation. Ultrafast internet can make sure the foundation of your business is solid and dependable.

What is ultrafast internet?

So what exactly is ultrafast? Quite simply, it’s very fast internet connectivity, based on one of two new technologies. How fast is it? Well, if you’re currently on ADSL (copper) broadband, you probably get a maximum download speed of up to 24Mbps. If you have part-fibre FTTC (Fibre to the Cabinet), top speeds of up to around 80Mbps are the norm.

With ultrafast, you can easily get speeds of 300Mbps and beyond.

Ultrafast connectivity can be based on either part-fibre G.fast technology or full fibre FTTP. That makes it flexible as well as fast. Depending on the technology available and your own preference, ultrafast packages can offer speeds of between 100Mbps and 900Mbps.

Ultrafast is also more reliable than slower counterparts, and that’s especially true of full fibre connections. As a general rule, the more fibre in your connectivity solution, the more robust it will be. FTTP is currently the gold standard for fast and dependable broadband.

Do you need ultrafast?

Which is all very well, but do you actually need ultrafast? If you recognise any of these scenarios, it’s certainly worth considering:

• You’re equipping your workforce for long-term flexible work. The more you rely on a remote workforce, the more cloud services you’ll need to make sure employees can be productive, collaborative and efficient wherever they are. These services put pressure on your bandwidth and will work best if you have plenty to spare.
• You have issues with your current connectivity solution. Maybe it drops out too often, or slows to snail’s pace at certain times of day? Maybe your e-commerce or ERP systems struggle during peak times? Whatever the issue with your connectivity, ultrafast is almost certainly the answer.
• You’re accelerating your digital transformation. You're using more cloud services, and you think your business would benefit from better use of data, or from the Internet of Things. You want to digitise core business processes. If any of that rings true, ultrafast can drive your digital transformation in a way that slower connectivity can’t.
• You’re moving to all-IP communications. Between now and 2025 all businesses will have to implement an alternative to ISDN telephony. While simple VoIP telephony is fine over slower connections, many organisations will take the opportunity to switch to flexible, feature-rich hosted unified communications (UC). UC brings voice, video, email, chat, presence and collaboration tools together in a highly efficient way, and the more bandwidth it has the better.

Ultrafast from TalkTalk Business

In reality, there are any number of reasons why businesses might benefit from faster, more reliable connectivity. That’s why TalkTalk Business has a wide range of ultrafast packages to meet the needs of any organisation. Our ultrafast packages start at just £29.95 a month (ex VAT), making them affordable for businesses of all sizes.

And with TalkTalk Business, you get service to match the speed. We offer award-winning, round-the-clock support and we’re the only Tier-1 provider rated ‘Excellent’ on Trustpilot. There are no installation costs for our ultrafast packages, and we won’t raise the price at the end of the contract period. You can choose the day and time for installation to keep business disruption to an absolute minimum.

All in all, this is an exciting time for businesses in Cardiff. Widely available ultrafast technology has given you an opportunity to steal a march on the competition. Faster and more reliable internet can give you the confidence to adopt new ways of working and new technologies, driving your business forwards into a more productive and efficient digital-first future.

Want to find out more about cost-effective ultrafast packages from TalkTalk Business? Click here or give us a call on 03330 601113 to speak to our expert team.