British companies believe that access to fast fibre optic networks is just as important to their business as better road and rail networks, according to a new study.
The study, carried out by Virgin Media Business, comes just a day after the government announced it was delaying the rollout of 2 megabits per second broadband in the UK due to a lack of funds.
The plan was to have the high-speed network in place by 2012 but that has now been pushed back to 2015. Conservative MP and secretary for culture, media and sport Jeremy Hunt said that he was "not convinced that there is sufficient funding in place" for the project and blamed the previous Labour government for leaving the coffers empty.
The Virgin Media Business survey spoke to 5,000 organisations across the UK and found that people thought road, rail and broadband were equally critical to their enterprises, with around 30% of respondents plumping for each.
The results were more pronounced in the capital. 40% of London companies said that better broadband infrastructure would improve their bottom line compared to 24% who selected roads and rails. The results were similar in the south west and Wales (38%) and the south east (36%).
Business in Scotland (34%) and the midlands (37%) said better train networks would help their business more than broadband access while organisations in Northern Ireland (34%) and Yorkshire (37%) said better roads were the main priority.
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"Global figureheads from Prime Ministers to leading business owners have identified better communications infrastructure, such as fibre-optic networks, as the linchpin for improving the global economy," said Andrew McGrath, executive director, commercial of Virgin Media Business.
"Here in the UK we saw a general election packed with policies on how each political party would improve the nation’s communications infrastructure. This survey highlights that the issue is still at the forefront of the boardroom agenda, and highlights the very real need for businesses to step away from legacy infrastructure towards a faster future," McGrath concluded.
