How SMEs Will Benefit from Better Connectivity

Ask most businesses that depend on an online presence what their biggest concerns are and you will find speed of connection somewhere near the top of the list. Most will have an online presence with a dedicated website, but if customers have to wait for pages to download then the chance of losing business increases. Not only can that affect any current sale but it can also do some major damage to your credibility. For businesses, it’s not just the connectivity of their sites that is an issue but staying connected in the office environment.

Is the UK getting faster?
The great news is that investments are being made in infrastructure as we speak and the UK is set to catch up with the rest of the world and get a good deal faster. Businesses have called for greater ambition from the Government whose initial target was to get everyone up to 24 Mbps over the next few years. BT, however, have been testing out their G-Fast technology that could see download speeds of 800 Mbps in the near future.

The problem for the UK is that we are still using old fashioned copper telephone lines to deliver a lot of our internet power, something which has been highly criticised in the past. The other issue is that Fibre to the Cabinet or FTTC connections tend to degrade over distance, which means the further you are from the central unit, the lower your broadband speed is going to be. Virgin Media, BT’s nearest rival, has also been experimenting with faster speeds.

The question is whether it is coming quick enough for SMEs. The Federation of Small Businesses is looking for speeds of 100 Mbps by 2030 and is concerned that using old infrastructure, while cheaper, may well not provide the advances we need compared to installing new, high speed fibre optic systems.

The importance of the right IT support for your business needs
Getting IT provision, including broadband speed, right is one of the most important aspects of running any business. SMEs need a reliable and fast internet connection and that means making the best choices when it comes to who provides the IT support. Many businesses struggle with an in-house provision that has major limitations when it comes to trying to change infrastructure. Outsourcing to a third party, who can provide the right broadband with a high level of security is becoming more and more attractive, particularly to SMEs who operate on a limited budget.

Third party IT support also has the benefit that it can change and develop as your business also changes and begins to grow. That means you have a cost effective solution to what your business needs from the outset, including a secure broadband connection that provides the speed you need to develop.