Digital cottage industries growing with broadband use

More people are choosing to supplement their income by taking advantage of home broadband connections and setting up eBay businesses, the Financial Times has revealed.

Nearly 180,000 people have set up an eBay business over the course of the last two years, according to home-working services website Peopleperhour.com, while VoIP solutions give people the option to do business from home.

The spread of home broadband is being taken advantage of by larger businesses as well, with Littlewoods employing people as home-based call-centre staff, enabling them to save money by not having to invest in additional office space.

Emma Jones, founder of Enterprise Nation, a website catering for businesses based at home, told the paper: "It used to be just people who were already running a business from home as their main business. Now there are a lot of people who are holding down a day job but looking for a second income."

In related broadband news, Avanti Communications has been awarded more than £220,000 to conduct research into delivering web services in rural areas by satellite.