A study conducted by the new wholesale division of UK ISP Be Broadband (BE Wholesale) has found that two thirds of businesses believe poor internet connectivity is stifling new working practices. Existing broadband speeds, which are often far too slow, were also found to be impeding growth of the UK economy.

More than one in three businesses said their current internet connection wouldn’t support new collaborative working applications, such as video conferencing, VoIP and Cloud based services. Consequently, 72% of people think more reliable and faster broadband will ultimately make their business more competitive.


More than 60% of respondents believe unified communications would reduce their costs and increase productivity. A belief supported by businesses that have already trialled new IP-based services; 80% of whom report strong financial benefits.

Other key findings:

* 57 per cent of enterprises say employee remote access (VPN) is now a key business tool.

* 34 per cent of enterprises consider Cloud-hosted applications an essential business applications.

* 60 per cent of respondents don’t believe they’re receiving the speeds they’re paying for.

* 38 per cent of businesses think their internet connections cannot support applications such as high definition video conferencing and VOIP.

* Six out of ten businesses would adopt new collaborative applications, but only if they’re sure these wouldn’t impact email and web search based activities.

BE's study was conducted with 500 businesses across the UK and is obviously designed to plug their own services. In fairness BE's unbundled ADSL2+ platform, which covers 70% of the country, is widely regarded as being one of the fastest in the country. Both Fluidata and AAISP have already adopted it and more could follow if the price is right.