Small Business Phone and Broadband Guide: What You Need to Know

Ollie Hill-Haimes, Sales Director | 7 min read · Mar 2026

What Does a Small Business Actually Need?

For most small businesses the requirement is simple: a stable internet connection and a means of making and receiving calls. What has changed is how both are delivered. Full fibre is now the sensible default, and traditional phone lines have been retired in favour of internet calling.

On the broadband side, full fibre (FTTP) is widely available and competitively priced. On telephony, the move to VoIP means your phone system now rides on your business broadband rather than a separate copper line. Get the connection right first, and the phone system follows.

How Did the ISDN Switch-Off Change Phone Lines?

The ISDN switch-off ended the supply of traditional copper phone lines, so all new business phone services are now delivered over the internet as VoIP. You no longer buy a "phone line" — you buy broadband plus a calling subscription. Ofcom oversees this migration to digital voice.

Openreach has been retiring the old analogue and ISDN network and moving customers to digital alternatives, with the programme completing by 31 January 2027. Ofcom's guidance on the move to digital landlines explains what the change means for businesses still on legacy lines. The practical upshot: plan your phone system around VoIP, not a copper line. You can read more in our breakdown of the PSTN and ISDN switch-off.

What Are the Business Broadband Options for a Small Office?

Small businesses have three realistic broadband choices: FTTC (older part-fibre), FTTP (full fibre), and a leased line (a dedicated circuit). For most offices FTTP is now the best fit on price and performance, with FTTC a fallback where full fibre has not yet arrived.

FTTC (Fibre to the Cabinet)

FTTC is the legacy part-fibre technology — fibre to the street cabinet, copper for the final stretch. It is still available at most UK premises and adequate for a very small office with light usage, at roughly 40–80Mbps download and 10–20Mbps upload, from £35 a month.

It is steadily being displaced by FTTP. Where Openreach has finished its full fibre build, FTTP is usually the better choice at a similar price.

FTTP (Full Fibre to the Premises)

FTTP runs glass fibre directly into your building, delivering 100Mbps to 1Gbps with dramatically better upload speeds than FTTC — which matters for cloud backups, video calls and hosted apps. Expect from £35 a month depending on the speed tier.

For most small businesses, a 100–300Mbps FTTP product is well matched — fast enough for a team of 10–15 staff on cloud applications, on a standard business SLA.

Leased Lines

A leased line is a dedicated, uncontended circuit with guaranteed symmetrical speeds and a formal SLA. For a business under 10 staff it is usually more than you need and more than you need to spend, from around £69/month. It earns its place when reliability is genuinely critical or call quality must never slip — see our guide to what a leased line is.

What Are the Business Phone Options After the Switch-Off?

With copper lines gone, small businesses choose between hosted VoIP (a cloud phone system), Microsoft Teams Calling, or a bundled broadband-and-phone package. Hosted VoIP suits most; Teams Calling suits Microsoft 365 users; bundles trade flexibility for a single bill.

Hosted VoIP

A hosted VoIP system (a cloud PBX) carries calls over your broadband, with voicemail, call queuing, multiple extensions, call recording and an auto-attendant built in. Costs run from £5.95 per user a month depending on features. There is no on-site hardware, and staff answer on a desk phone, laptop or mobile.

It scales as you hire, and there is no PBX box to maintain. Our hosted phone system overview covers setup and features in detail.

Microsoft Teams Calling

If you already run Microsoft 365, Microsoft Teams Calling (Teams Phone) adds public phone-network calling to Teams, so staff make and receive calls inside the app on any device. It typically runs from £7–£15 per user a month as an add-on to existing licences. Microsoft 365 Business plans start at £4.60 per user a month for Business Basic, per Microsoft's UK pricing, with calling licensed separately.

One platform for meetings, messaging and calls keeps administration simple. See our guide to Microsoft Teams calling.

Bundled Broadband and Phone

Several providers — including Virgin Media Business, BT Business and TalkTalk Business — sell bundled broadband-and-phone packages. They simplify billing, but they are not always the best value. Compare the total cost of a bundle against best-available broadband plus a specialist VoIP system before you commit.

What Does It Cost a Small Business?

A typical small office should budget £60–£120 a month for combined broadband and phone (typical UK 2026 range), depending on the choices you make. Businesses moving off legacy ISDN and FTTC usually cut their monthly communications bill while improving both speed and phone features.

• Business FTTP 100Mbps: from £35/month
• Hosted VoIP (3 users): from £5.95/user/month
• Combined small-office estimate: £60–£120/month

The point is not to chase the cheapest line. It is to match the connection to how your team actually works — and to treat the phone system and broadband as one decision, not two. Explore the full business VoIP range to see how calling plans pair with a connection.