Wednesday, 27 November 2019
I have been advising organisations for over 20 years on how to get the most out of their telecoms and it still surprises me how many companies put up with poor broadband and the detrimental impact it has on productivity and business growth. Even though four in five companies state that fast and reliable Internet is extremely important to their business, 39% of employees still report that their Internet is ‘much faster’ at home compared to the Internet they use at work. The UK has the world’s fourth largest e-commerce economy but is ranked only 35th for average download speeds, trailing behind other European countries such as Romania and Hungary. This has prompted the government into acting to improve the UK’s broadband infrastructure and resulted in the introduction of a Broadband Voucher Scheme to give businesses up to £2,500 towards installing better broadband. The scheme has proven to be popular, and so far 10,000 broadband connections have been delivered, with around two-thirds of the available funding now committed. You therefore need to act quickly to avoid missing out on this opportunity. In addition to the government’s Broadband Voucher Scheme, new and disruptive network providers are now entering the market, reducing the price of faster broadband. A great part of my job is telling companies that they can get faster and better broadband for less than they are currently paying. Not only can businesses improve their broadband by making use of government funding and reduced connectivity costs but by installing better broadband they are also able to save money on all their telecoms by taking advantage of new technology. In December 2018, Openreach gave notice that it would stop selling traditional fixed-line solutions and these services will be withdrawn completely in 2025. More than 50% of businesses have already moved away from ISDN and now is a good time to upgrade your Internet connection to a scalable and reliable VoIP solution to avoid leaving your business vulnerable, relying on unsupported infrastructure.
By Robin Mukherjee, Managing Director of 2 Circles Consultants
