Posted: 02nd Sep, 2003 By: MarkJ
Believe it or not the British Chamber of Commerce (BCC) has found that many URBAN businesses have been unable to get broadband due to a lack of availability. Despite that, 40% of member firms now have a broadband connection, which compares with 19% last year:
While the lack of availability of broadband in rural areas is a well-recognised, if not necessarily a well-addressed, problem, the BCC survey found that a worrying number of companies in urban locations also can't get an affordable broadband link.
Close to half of the firms without broadband told the BCC that they haven't taken up the technology because it isn't available in their area. One-third of this group (15.8 percent of the overall group of non-broadband firms) are located in urban and industrial areas, with the rest situated in a rural or isolated region.
They also suggest that a business that can't get an affordable broadband connection could be in big trouble. Three-fifths of those surveyed by the BCC believe that over the next five years that they will be pressured by their customers to "conduct business that requires a high-speed connection".Typically it's suggested that both the government and telecoms sector must work harder to address the problem. More @
ZDNet.