Member Article

Cheap broadband is not the answer for business

With more than a quarter (1) of all small businesses now operating from home and a growing proportion of the UK workforce opting to work from home, business communication specialist, Calteq has warned that too many are using a broadband service that is simply not fit for purpose.

“I fully support cheap broadband for the average consumer and even suggest it should be free but too many small businesses and homeworkers are running their broadband connection as part of their home telecoms package and then questioning why the service is so slow,” says Mike Stephenson, Director, Calteq. “Typical home broadband connectivity is simply not geared up for business usage levels and nor does it have adequate back-ups should the service go down.”

In a 2015 report (2) by the Prime Minister’s advisor, Lord Young, on Small Firms, special reference was made to the importance of adequate broadband for business practices and despite a Government initiative in 2013 offering grants to small firms for super-fast broadband, just 7,000 firms have benefitted. This is just the tip of the iceberg as there are now 5.2 million small firms(3) in the UK and accounts for 48% of employment and 33% of private sector turnover.

“The majority of businesses rely heavily on their broadband connection in order to function and consider it a business critical service so it begs the question why are they still opting to spend £10 per month when for around £30 per month, you can get super-fast connectivity, business level support, and reliability?” says Mike Stephenson. Business critical broadband is equally important for the UK’s growing army of homeworkers of which there are over 4.2 million (3).

“For the major broadband suppliers home connections are not seen as a priority and waiting several days for an issue to be fixed could heavily impact your business. The same applies to homeworkers, if a business expects its employee to work from home then there needs to be business level connectivity,” Mike Stephenson continues. “Ensuring your business has reliable broadband connectivity is an easy step to take that won’t have a significant impact on your cost line but will provide the necessary assurances to keep your business online all of the time,” he concludes.

Sources (1) Department for Innovation and Skills Small Business Survey 2012 (2&3) The Report on Small Firms 2010-2015 (3) TUC Analysis on homeworkers

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Calteq .