The problem at the moment, however, is that, while organisations in both small and large urban areas have no problems with obtaining fast connections, many small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in rural areas are losing out. Small country businesses may still have to rely on slow dial-up modems, pay for expensive ISDN or even opt for the leased lines usually only economically viable for large corporates. This affects their competitiveness which in turn impacts the UK economy as a whole given the huge percentage of business in the UK that fall into the SME category.
"It's about being able to function properly and compete with business in urban areas, but it's also about making certain parts of the country attractive to companies to maintain or improve employment and, therefore, local GDP [gross domestic product]," says Michael Philpott, broadband analyst at Ovum.
Impact on GDP
Colin Campbell, broadband campaign manager at the Broadband Industry Group, agrees. He cites a recent survey undertaken by the Centre for Economic and Business Research, which indicates that if all UK companies had broadband, productivity would rise by 2.5 percent by 2015, which would equate to faster economic growth. As a result, UK GDP would be £22bn higher in 11 years' time and government borrowing would be £13bn less due to lower spending and extra tax revenues. Moreover, net exports would be £11bn more as the economy became more productive and fixed investment would grow by £8bn as expenditure on telecoms equipment was stimulated and more services made available online.
But despite the alleged bounty that broadband could bestow, DTI has indicated that SMEs aren't snapping up high-speed connections in the numbers expected with most citing a lack of any real business advantage beyond obtaining a faster Internet connection. "The operators have to start making more business applications and services available, for example setting up teleworkers as part of a package or providing remote backup so they can save x amount a month. Organisations need to be able to create a business case around it and if they can't, it simply turns them off," says Ovum's Philpott.
Talkback
I live in a village in the north west of england.
BT has set a trigger level of 350, which i'ld be surprised if theres 150 computers in the area never mind the ridiculous amount of computers BT assumes are present in a village of this size. But then again i'm surprised BT even know where silloth is in the country. We have a local group offering wireless broadband, which i ordered and when they came on the third arranged appointment all they told me was i could not recieve a signal. So there answer was rather stick the aerial on a pole on the side of my house or they would have to install a node. That was over two months ago. I would have thought if they had any clue what they were doing they would of already planned for this exact situation, but like most companies in the UK they are a bunch of cowboys. I personally think the government should subsidise the rollout of broadband to the parts of the country BT are not willing to commit to, as it was the government shouting about broadband britain by 2005, or are we in the rural areas not part of britain in this equation. Maybe the government should subsidise an alternative telecommunications network and bring other telecommunications companies that aren't run by imbecilic dinosaurs in to use the network thus creating competition for the lacklustre telecommunications monopoly we have had this country for decades namely BT.
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