The
Federation of Small Businesses(FSB) has slammed
government broadband plans for lacking ambition and being in a
"time warp".
FSB national chairman John Wright said more than half of small
businesses rely on the internet for up to 50% of their annual
turnover. "By 2012, £1 in every £5 will come from online commerce,
but if small businesses are to compete, the government must take
bolder action."
He said FSB research showed that a third of SMEs have access to
2Mbps broadband, but around 60% want a minimum broadband speed of
8Mbps. "With Japan leading the way, making high-speed broadband of
90Mbps available to everyone, the FSB urges the government to do
more."
Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) make up 97% of the
British economy. Many, particularly those in rural areas, still
can't get high-speed, low-contention broadband. And there are
plenty of "not spots" in urban areas that are waiting for
broadband, Wright said.
In its final
Digital Britain report, the government committed to providing a
2Mbps universal broadband service by 2012. But Computer Weekly
uncovered government plans to tax Wi-Fi and Wi-Max networks,
which provide broadband to many rural communities, and possibly to
backdate the tax five years. This could put many community rural
network out of business, according to some local network
operators.
Mark Seemann, development director at Outsourcery, a
communications and hosted IT provider with 25,000 customers and
over 100,000 business end-users, said the government's plans to
increase broadband speeds do not go far enough.
"The aim is essentially to tinker with the broadband speed
rather than solve the underlying issue, which is that the UK is
using arcane technology. The nation's copper infrastructure
desperately needs to be upgraded to fibre optic to satisfy
businesses' requirements for today and in the future," he said.
Seemann added that a copper-based broadband infrastructure was
unlikely to achieve speeds above 50Mbps. A purely fibre optic
infrastructure could reach speeds of 100Mbps per customer, rising
to 1GB, he said.
"This would allow customers to run increasingly important
applications, such as high-definition videoconferencing, and stream
complex software over the internet, which can be problematic with
low broadband speeds," he said.