High-speed broadband vital for SMEs

Investing in high-speed broadband networks in the UK could be especially vital for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to help Britain remain competitive.

Through the Digital Britain report, the government has committed to making sure every UK home has a connection of two megabits per second (Mbps) by 2012, but internet service providers face pressure to invest in technology such as fibre optic cabling to deliver speeds of 100Mbps, reports Financial Mail.

Almost £1 in every £10 generated in the UK economy each year is produced by the digital sector and these companies will need higher speeds to facilitate VoIP hardware and help them run their operations more efficiently.

Simon Bulleyment, chief information officer at London-based chartered accountancy Haysmacintyre, told the Financial Mail Small Business panel recently: "As technology develops, growing numbers of firms will be looking to adopt video conferencing and teleconferencing, for example, so an efficiently working infrastructure must be there or firms - namely smaller firms - will suffer."

Virgin Media recently launched a 50Mbps service and faces competition primarily from BT.