BT Enterprise Launch 4G Mobile Broadband Back-up for UK SMEs UPDATE

BT’s Enterprise division has today launch a new “business-grade broadband product” called 4G Assure, which switches automatically to a 4G mobile data connection to help small and medium sized UK businesses stay connected if they experience an interruption to their fixed line ISP connection.

The new 4G Assure service is said to work with all of BT’s broadband connection types and it also supports static IP addresses. Crucially this is NOT to be confused with the BT Plus service that was announced by their consumer division last week (here), although it does flow into the same theme of convergence.

Essentially businesses will receive a Mobile Broadband dongle (usually a USB modem) to complement their existing Business Smart Hub router and this will then automatically failover to a “reliable” 4G connection if the fixed line goes down. We should point out that some third-party broadband ISP routers can already be configured to do something similar, although many of those require it to be manually setup and may be less flexible.

After this the hub will then monitor for the return of the fixed line broadband connection every few seconds and will automatically switch back to fixed broadband when the line becomes stable. In addition, if a broadband fault is detected then BT will know and “take action to proactively fix the fault, without the customer having to contact the company to request a fix.”

The other advantage is that businesses can also use this feature in reverse, which means you can make use of the 4G data connection while waiting for a new fixed line service to go live.

Mike Tomlinson, MD of SME for BT, said:

“We recognise that a reliable, always on broadband connection is essential for businesses. So we’ve packed even more innovation into our award winning Smart Hub to provide SMEs with a failsafe method to stay online. We are very excited about this new service because it combines the strengths of our fixed broadband network and the UK’s most powerful Wi-Fi signal with the most extensive 4G network in the country.

This delivers a highly resilient broadband service which will keep SMEs – the backbone of the UK economy – up and running.”

The 4G Assure solution will be included at “no extra charge” for those customers taking an Ultrafast, Infinity Premium or Broadband Premium business broadband package from BT. Customers who purchase BT’s standard business broadband packages will have the option to buy 4G Assure for an additional £8 per month.

You’ll also benefit from “unlimited” mobile data with this feature, although they’re probably assuming that you won’t need that all the time because it’s a redundancy product.

UPDATE 7:16pm

Rival ISP OptaNet has stated that BT are NOT the “first” to offer the above service and in fact they claim to have been offering the same solution for awhile, which is similarly titled “Assured Internet“.