Scotland's businesses suffering from 'inferior broadband'

Businesses in Scotland are struggling as a result of their "inferior" broadband, according to the results of a new poll.

Research commissioned by CityFibre and conducted by YouGov found that the majority (52 per cent) of companies in Scotland believe that the country's infrastructure in terms of broadband is inferior.

Over two-thirds (61 per cent) of the respondents to the survey indicated that business broadband is vital to economic growth in Scotland.

CityFibre's city development manager James McClafferty described fast and reliable business broadband as "vital" in modern society.

He added: "The fact that 61 per cent of the IT decision makers we polled in Scotland agree and yet over half (52 per cent) of them rate their current service as substandard should be a real concern."

Mr McClafferty explained that Scotland is a vital part of the UK economy, citing regional powerhouses such as Aberdeen and Edinburgh as crucial to the economic health of the nation overall.

He said: "Such areas are in desperate need of cutting edge technology in order to carry out their day-to-day business. More importantly they need the network infrastructure to support it."

Digital fibre was cited by many of the respondents to the poll as a key solution to these business broadband problems in Scotland, with 44 per cent stating investment in this area would improve revenues.

Furthermore, 55 per cent and 68 per cent of those polled for CityFibre's research respectively stated that they believe cost efficiency and productivity would grow if gigabit speed internet was commonplace.

Richard Nicol, chief executive of CommsWorld, CityFibre's partner in Scotland, noted that "phenomenal" digital advances have been made in Scotland in the last five to 10 years.

He said: "The amount of new digital businesses appearing that are helping to grow the economy is fantastic. However, without the proper infrastructure there will always be a limit to what can be achieved and at some point capacity will become a huge issue."

Businesses looking to move services into the cloud should evaluate the performance of their existing network and consider setting up a leased line or MPLS network.