The vast majority of SMEs (74 per cent) aren’t sure if there’s an altnet available in their area, according to new survey by bOnline.
Among those that believe there is, the majority (65 per cent) haven’t tried to access them. Reasons for not doing so range from a belief there will be no real price advantage (35 per cent), to too much hassle to switch (30 per cent), with 11 per cent simply “not trusting them”.
These latest findings follow-on from bOnline’s July survey that indicated more than two thirds of SMEs either did not know if Openreach’s Ultrafast FTTP broadband had yet reached their area or if it was yet available.
Anthony Karibian, CEO and founder of bOnline, said, “Britain’s small and micro businesses deserve better and the country’s patchwork approach to building out its FTTP network is not helping. SMEs require solutions today that both enable them to compete on an equal footing with corporates and bring down their costs given the imminent squeeze on margins from the National Insurance increase.
“That is what bOnline is in the market doing - unlike the incumbents who continue to gouge their long tail of smaller customers with twice yearly price increases and the altnets whose primary focus is on the residential market. Failure to properly mobilise the UK’s SMEs will only further hold back the country’s growth.”
Confusion around the UK’s strategy for introducing full-fibre across the country also continues to be a dominant theme among SME owners. According to bOnline’s findings, three fifths (58 per cent) are unaware that there are more than 20 independent full-fibre altnets across the country. Only a slim majority (53 per cent) understand that major broadband service providers such as Sky Broadband and TalkTalk are not building out their own full-fibre networks but providing their services via other network operators such as BT Openreach, Virgin Media and CityFibre. The remainder either didn’t know (38 per cent) or didn’t care (9 per cent).
Half (51 per cent) of all respondents also expressed concern over the reported levels of debt taken on by the altnets to build out their respective networks. Forty three per cent were also not convinced the level of choice being provided by the UK’s approach to introducing FTTP will be helpful, half of those (52 per cent) thinking the rollout is “way too complicated”, 10 per cent that all the services will end up similarly priced and 7 per cent concerned that “many won’t survive”.