A new study has found the business appetite for high-capacity connectivity is set to support the next surge of digital investment. Forty-two percent of UK businesses regard moving to higher capacity connectivity in the next two years as key to growth plans – rating it either ‘integral’ or ‘greatly important’ to their future success.
As well as showing an appetite for greater connectivity, the report insights point to shortcomings in government incentives for high-capacity network expansion, stifling the ability of AltNets to serve UK business growth. When business leaders were asked if their business had felt a notable impact from the government’s Project Gigabit roll-out, just 52.5% said yes.
The UK Business Gigabit Connectivity Report – conducted by business ethernet backhaul providers, Neos Networks – gathered insights from business leaders and decision-makers at 160 UK companies. The study sought to gauge the business appetite for connectivity investment to support growth and identify the role AltNets could play.
For those that have invested over the last 24 months, nearly one in eight businesses (11.2%) stated that investing in connectivity had a direct impact on business profitability. Plus, 98.3% of businesses said they saw indirect impacts such as productivity, staff retention or client collaboration.
Some of the top reasons businesses are prioritising higher capacity connectivity are increased computer power (22.4%), operational development meaning more data and higher capacity requirements (21.2%) and greater device usage for each employee (11.6%). One in 10 UK businesses are actively looking to increase their connectivity to better integrate AI into their processes.
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