Sorry State of Broadband Access
December 6 2001
Only 8% of CAD/CAM users in the UK currently have access to broadband, and only 8% of the rest definitely plan to switch to a broadband connection in the future. These are the key findings from new IT research conducted by The Business Advantage Group Plc.
The survey in question focussed on managers responsible for CAD/CAM functions at 250 UK sites. The respondents were selected across a broad range of industry sectors and questioned about their current attitudes to access to broadband.
The research also found that:
- The vast majority (eight out of ten) felt that the speed and reliability of their current Internet connection is satisfactory to their needs.
- Only 6 percent of respondents felt that broadband will be vital to the product development process in future.
- Nearly a third consider it will be important or fairly important, while 45% think it unimportant.
- Forty five percent rely on dial-up Internet/email access; just over a third use a combination of ISDN and dial-up access, and one in ten respondents do not even know what type of Internet access their site has.
- The 8% of respondents who do have broadband access comprise of 5% DSL and 3% leased line or cable.
Chris Turner, Managing Director of The Business Advantage Group Plc, observed, 'Many telecommunications analysts regard the slow rate of broadband deployment in the UK as a serious threat to business, creating a division of the country into high- and low-connectivity areas. Our survey provides further evidence that, for a broad swathe of engineering, architecture and construction companies, it is a lack of interest in investigating the benefits of faster connections that is a bigger issue. The patchy availability of broadband must be considered when analysing the attitudes and intentions of potential users - for example 12% of our sample said that a DSL connection was unavailable in their area. More tellingly however, 65% didn't know if DSL is available or not. Even where it is available, many businesses are not using it because they have not been convinced of the benefits of the solutions and services that tend to require more bandwidth.'
Turner concluded by stating, 'A quarter of our sample has looked into the cost/benefits of broadband, yet only 8% have actually decided to install a broadband connection. The unsatisfactory state of affairs in the UK broadband market will be playing its part - it is significantly more expensive than Germany for example - but a lack of commitment to potentially bandwidth-hungry Internet solutions is also a major factor.'
The research was conducted by telephone interviews in October 2001 amongst a sample of 250 UK CAD/CAM user-sites from Business Advantage's database of 20,000 CAD/CAM user sites. The full report can be read free of charge on the company's website.
All articles 2006-22 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas unless otherwise stated.
