Better and Faster Broadband Vital to Boost Competitiveness, Australian Study
A survey backed by the Australian government has found that businesses are hoping advances in Australia’s broadband infrastructure will lead to an increase in financial activity.
The study, conducted by The Australian Industry Group (AiG) and Deloitte found that the demand for broadband is greatest in regional areas with reliability and pricing identified as the most important elements of the proposed new national broadband network.
Among the findings:
- Over 93% of companies indicated that the Internet has had a positive impact on their efficiency/productivity.
- 66% of businesses believe their business will benefit greatly from faster broadband.
- 69.7% of regional firms would see a great benefit from faster broadband.
faster broadband is expected to lead to large increases in financial activity for 36% of businesses, with a further 45.1% of companies expecting small increases. - 29.6% of small firms indicated they have a low degree of skills which would prevent them seizing opportunities arising from the deployment of high speed broadband.
- 73.5% indicated that they were likely to upgrade to high speed broadband, if available.
- Reliability of service was the dominant factor influencing the extent of uptake.
- A quarter of all companies indicated a willingness to pay a premium price for access to higher speed broadband.
Read AiG’s press release about the survey.
Source: AiG, Australian IT
