The UK’s economy is becoming increasingly reliant on broadband connectivity in order to drive growth and ensure that jobs and businesses can be created and sustained, no matter where they happen to be located.
This means that accessible broadband is a crucial aspect of securing future economic prosperity, since leaving large areas of the country out of the loop will leave Britain at a distinct disadvantage to better-connected nations.
The hot topic of broadband accessibility is one that has become somewhat controversial in recent years, although the extent to which you are attuned to it will vary depending on the availability of services in your area.
For those companies based in heavily populated towns and cities, the likelihood of being able to access super-fast broadband is much higher. Cities including London, Birmingham and Newcastle have all made significant investments of public money, combined with cash from private telecoms companies, in order to improve the broadband infrastructure within them and thus make it easier for businesses to get online at high speeds.
Conversely, sparsely populated areas in rural regions have to campaign much more vocally in order to secure investment in next-generation broadband technologies, or else face being overlooked. In some cases local businesses and residents have taken things into their own hands and paid for the installation of a faster broadband infrastructure, rather than wait for the often laborious process of getting public funding or convincing private telecoms providers that carrying out this work is sensible.
Whatever your business, situation or location, broadband is quickly becoming a crucial tool that not only drives communication but also streamlines many other aspects of an organisation.
Firstly, a good broadband connection can be used to cut the costs of making voice calls, because harnessing a VoIP service will help to eliminate the expense of internal communications and also allow businesses to call customers, clients and partners without incurring such steep charges.
In addition, VoIP will help to reduce the investment that needs to be made in on-premises telephony equipment, since external hosting is able to handle advanced routing and forwarding of calls. Meanwhile, the fact that a single line can handle multiple VoIP extensions simultaneously using broadband means that there will be less need to bear rental charges that can plague analogue services.
Secondly, with a fast broadband connection a business can take advantage of the various benefits of cloud computing. The cloud can be used to store data, run applications and provide additional IT capacity. The technology gives you access to infrastructural elements that would not be possible to integrate with your in-house set-up.
The cloud can also be used to promote things like home and remote working, allowing a business to create a far more flexible approach to work for its employees and increasing its ability to react to changing circumstances. It is easier to maintain business continuity and survive in the face of disasters using a fast connection and cloud services, although of course you do need access to the right kind of broadband before this is possible.
Improvements being made to the UK’s broadband infrastructure are having an impact on the economy, although most businesses would agree that more needs to be done in order to ensure that a wider proportion of the country has the high-speed access necessary to stimulate growth in the long term.
All types of business now require internet access in order to operate on a day-to-day basis and even those that are currently unable to get fast access are clamouring to be added to the grid in order to avoid stagnation.
Daisy Group Plc are a leading provider of business broadband throughout the UK. Visit their website for more information.