Small businesses calling for faster broadband

Following complaints about the unreliable quality of internet provision, small businesses have demanded broadband speed guarantee.

Federations have demanded minimum broadband speeds for all customers of at least 10Mbps across the UK, following complaints that the quality of internet provision is unreliable.

Network complexity has become a bigger challenge than bandwidth for progressive businesses. With an ever increasing number of internet connected devices, businesses have become more dependent on connectivity than ever before, with more data flowing across both private networks and the public internet.

Network development has changed dramatically over the past 20 years, with the ways in which businesses interact using the internet. The cost of bandwidth has decreased and its availability has increased, allowing businesses to support a variety of different services from different locations.

However, due to the rapid increase in the number of devices and applications, the management and monitoring of the flow of data has becoming increasingly difficult, which has had an effect on availability, performance and security.

The Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) said that a voluntary code of practice was necessary, to ensure that broadband providers are providing what was promised.

In a report published at the beginning of September 2015 by the FSB, members said that although services were improving, complaints had to be made regarding the reliability of the speed promised by providers, and that a Universal Service Obligation (USO) would resolve the problem by setting a floor of 10bps.

“Large numbers of small firms are using new digital technology to revolutionise the way they do business, but the market still has barriers stopping firms from seizing these opportunities,” said Mike Cherry, FSB Policy Director.

“The success of the digital revolution has led to ever higher expectations from businesses and consumers which at times the market struggles to deliver.”

Further investment in digital infrastructure was also recommended in the report.

Businesses were also concerned about the amount of time it took service providers to repair faults and install new services.

As part of the UK’s Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) programme, it has promised to provide superfast broadband of more than 15Mpbs to 95% of the country by 2017.

 

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