Gigaclear - Residential vs Business

One of my customers has taken over a local pub that currently has a service from Gigaclear, on a residential contract.

As we will be taking over the service, I thought I would check what their business contract offered that the residential service didn't. Just looking at the top 900Mbps package for ease of comparison:

Residential
£49 per month for 18 months, then £79 per month
18 month contract
Free activation

Business
£477.60 ex VAT per month
24 month contract
£166.67 ex VAT installation


To be fair, I haven't spoken to them yet to confirm what extras they offer for 10 times the price per month, but as there is no info I can see on the website about different contention rates, downtime SLAs, etc. I do wonder what they are charging for.

Does anyone have any knowledge or experience of their business service?

I would guess higher guaranteed bandwidth (ie lower contention) and better SLAs for fix. They may also have conditions in their residential that say it cannot be used for business.

See post in this thread from a few months ago.

I’m not sure you’re comparing equivalent products across business and residential.

At a Fastershire/Gigaclear community meeting last December, I asked about business use of a residential line, and the Fastershire guy said he didn't see a problem apart from the contention, SLA, and no VAT invoice. The Gigaclear guys didn't say anything about it not being allowed (even though their terms & conditions do).
Hopefully, if Gigaclear get around to building the network in my area in the next year I'll be able to put that to the test...

Thanks for that - not sure why I didn't spot that when I searched the forum.

That info from Gigaclear's website is very helpful - it's not exactly hidden away on there, but they don't make it obvious to find.

I understand that I'm not really comparing equivalent products - I was just using the speed as the headline. The issue was more that a. I couldn't find any clear information on their website on what the difference was, and b. was the difference worth the increased cost.

I'll speak to them next week to get more info, as this new documentation seems to point to 3 price levels, but I think if we need some redundancy, I'll order a FTTC connection as well as the pub is less than 200m from the cabinet.

I think you’re better off comparing the broadband products - the key difference appears to be the level of contention between business and resi services.

The really expensive price you quoted in your OP was probably their dedicated, non-contended equivalent of a leased line service.

The really expensive price you quoted in your OP was probably their dedicated, non-contended equivalent of a leased line service.

No, that really is the price for the standard 10:1 contended business service. The EAD product is price-on-request, but the wholesale price is £550+VAT, so the retail price of a leased line equivalent is likely to be at least twice as much as the business FTTP.

Their cheapest 10:1 contended business product is 100Mbps for £85+VAT pm.

You’re right! According to their wholesale price list:

Broadband:
- Resi 1 GbE is £50 pcm (25:1 contention)
- Business 1 GbE is £268+VAT pcm (10:1 contention)

As you say their wholesale 1 GbE EAD is an eye watering £550+VAT pcm

From their website they want £477.60 + VAT for their Business 1 GbE broadband

So it would appear they’re marking up their own business 1 GbE service by 78% or £209+VAT per month. Blimey that’s nuts!!!

I thought their EAD prices were sublimely ridiculous, but that broadband price takes the biscuit.

Edited by Pheasant (Mon 28-Jun-21 10:27:46)

I've been watching Gigaclear's build progress in my area very closely - my only fixed line option at present is USO level ADDLS2+.
I work from home (software development), and we also run a small seasonal business where we offer WiFi to visitors. I'd like one broadband for both uses - I currently use 4G which is fast enough but the latency is uncomfortably high for work use. The cheapest Gigaclear business offering is far too expensive for the small business, and the residential T&Cs preclude business use.
So if I can use the residential broadband for both Gigaclear will make a sale - if not then I'll have no option but stay with 4G. Similar small businesses in the area can get 70-80Mbps FTTC, and pay less than I pay for 4G - about 25% of the cheapest Gigaclear business price.

I agree. Their business prices are nothing short of mental.