Small businesses value broadband reliability more than speed.

Small businesses say service and reliability is more important than speed.

According to research from ISP UK Online, speed is considered the least important factor.

The UK Online survey looked into how small businesses, home workers and sole traders use the Internet.  It found that 75% of respondents relied upon the Internet for the success and growth of their business.  Nearly 70% used the Internet for email.

Following recent publicity surrounding ISP’s packages not living up to speed expectations, it appears that, for businesses at least,  speed was not as important as reliability or security.

One of the respondents, Steve Malpass, who runs a kit car production company called Blitzworld, said “Over 60% of our business is done online, and by moving to broadband it now takes us a quarter of the time to manage and respond to the 20 to 30 email and web orders and enquiries we receive daily. As such, speed is a nice to have but reliability of the service is essential.”

Chris Stening, managing director of UK Online, said, “Despite recent reports in the media, broadband speed isn’t necessarily topping UK consumers’ list of concerns, and this is particularly true for business users, who have different priorities when it comes to their internet connection.”