Business class broadband, from a responsive local supplier

First Line offers the full range of managed broadband services to meet the varying needs of small and medium sized businesses.

Dependable, cost effective, comprehensive broadband solutions for businesses

Our services include:

• Single line ADSL: business quality ADSL broadband including fibre-based solutions
• Bonded multiple-line ADSL: Better performance than conventional ADSL, less expensive than a leased line
• Leased lines: guaranteed high-speed connection

Not sure what to go for?

We'll advise you on the best solution for your organisation, taking into account your business needs and your budget. We'll be honest about speeds and we can explain the impact that 'contention ratio' can have on the quality of service you'll receive.

Contention ratio

If you've seen that one broadband provider offers a contention ration of "50:1" and another broadband provider offers "10:1" as we do, and you don't know what this means or which one is best, then read on.

"Contention ratio" is the maximum number of businesses sharing a broadband connection at a telephone exchange.

So a contention ratio of 50:1 would mean that, at maximum, you could share your broadband connection with 49 other businesses. And if all of you were online at the same time then your connection could feel very slow indeed. It would be particularly noticeable if you needed to use a lot of bandwidth, such as downloading a big email attachment, downloading a big file from a remote server, or watching a video clip.

In the broadband marketplace, price and contention ratio pretty much go hand-in-hand: lower contention ratios generally mean a more reliable service and higher prices. Higher contention ratios mean more variable speeds and more variable quality of service, and lower prices.

More about First Line's broadband services

• We offer a contention ratio of 10:1, so we're not the cheapest but our lines are more reliable
• We manage all our services in-house, from line-provisioning and implementation, through to account management and fault resolution. Your relationship is with us and only us.
• By offering only the highest quality of services, your connections are fast and trouble free. We understand how important it is for you to communicate with your customers and suppliers.
• We supply a complete solution including routers, firewalls and wireless access points; everything you need for total connectivty.