Connectivity
February 2025 · 7 min read · All Articles
Internet downtime costs UK businesses thousands per hour. This guide explains what internet failover is, how it works and why every business broadband connection should have a 4G/5G backup.
Internet failover is a secondary backup connection that automatically activates if your primary broadband or leased line goes down. Instead of your business grinding to a halt — phones dead, card machines offline, cloud software inaccessible — everything keeps running as normal.
Most failover solutions use 4G or 5G as the backup path. A dual-WAN router monitors your primary connection and, within 60 seconds of detecting a fault, routes all traffic through the mobile backup. When the main connection recovers, traffic switches back automatically.
Gartner estimates average IT downtime costs enterprises around £4,000 per minute. For smaller UK businesses, the impact is proportionally significant:
The average UK broadband outage lasts 4–8 hours. At £500/hour lost productivity and revenue, that's a £2,000–£4,000 event — and it can happen multiple times per year.
While any business benefits, failover internet is essential for:
Telexico's Assure X failover product provides automatic 4G/5G backup for any existing broadband or leased line. It includes:
Assure X starts from £29/month and installation takes less than an hour. There's no need to change your primary broadband provider — it simply sits alongside any existing connection.
The right backup technology depends on what coverage is available at your premises:
Telexico's multi-network SIMs automatically connect to the strongest available signal at your location — you don't need to choose a specific network.
At £29/month, Assure X failover costs £348 per year. A single 4-hour outage at a typical small business costs far more than that in lost revenue and productivity. The math is simple — failover internet pays for itself the first time it activates.
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Telexico's Assure X failover activates within 60 seconds of detecting a primary connection fault. The switchover is automatic — no manual intervention required. Your staff may notice a brief interruption but applications and services recover immediately.
Yes — this is one of the primary reasons businesses add failover. VoIP calls route over the 4G/5G backup connection as soon as it activates. Your phone system stays live, calls can be made and received normally, and customers won't know anything has changed.
Yes — Assure X works alongside any existing broadband or leased line connection. We supply the dual-WAN router and 4G/5G SIM. Installation typically takes less than an hour and requires no changes to your primary connection.
The dual-WAN router monitors your primary connection continuously. When it detects the main connection has recovered, it automatically switches traffic back. The failover-to-recovery cycle is completely automatic — no manual steps required.