More British businesses may be using high-speed broadband connections than ever before, but many being 'failed' by their hosting services, leading to offline websites and frustrated customers, a new survey has reportedly found.

According to technology blog IT Pro, websites are now among a company's "most important assets", acting as a source of information for customers, a marketing tool for the business and a retail outlet.

However, it says a recent survey carried out by the site found that 20 per cent of companies only have access to customer and technical support from their web hosting provider during normal office hours.

The blog says this is "ludicrous" in an age when the peak times for web traffic are weekends and evenings, when consumers log on to use information, entertainment and shopping services.

Furthermore, 40 per cent of those with access to out-of-hours support said they are usually put on hold for "exceptionally" long periods.

Another 70 per cent of businesses have no Service Level Agreement (SLA) with their web host, meaning there are effectively no consequences for the provider if the website is down. Some ten per cent of company sites experience a total of two days downtime a year, the blog said.

According to the Office for National Statistics, 94 per cent of UK businesses with over 1,000 employees were using the internet in 2001.