O2 UK Claim Remote Working Services to Drive Business Broadband Uptake

Communications provider O2 Wholesale UK (formerly BE Wholesale) has surveyed 100 companies in the UK IT industry and revealed that 70% expect “uptake” of fixed broadband ISP services to increase over the next 6 months, with demand for remote working being the dominant factor.

Some 73% of businesses expected to see broadband uptake increasing as a result of remote working, while 58% anticipated more demand for services in the Cloud (online storage and applications) and 32% highlighted adoption of the Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policy (i.e. allowing employees to bring their own mobile devices to their place of work) as influencing uptake.

Interestingly only 46% of those surveyed, some of which were ISPs, felt their end-user customers were aware that the growing use of remote working, cloud and BYOD solutions could add extra strain to the existing broadband network. Dan Cunliffe, Head of Strategy and Partners at O2 Wholesale, said, “The results clearly show that quality fixed broadband is a major potential growth opportunity.”

When asked to list the most important qualities for a wholesale broadband supplier, reliability was deemed most important, followed by service / IT support, then download speeds and lastly “unlimited” usage. Unfortunately O2 didn’t clarify what proportion of the vote each option had won.