One-in-ten UK businesses are being held back by insufficient bandwidth, a new report from Beaming has revealed.
This equates to over half a million (560,000) firms nationwide, including 370,000 small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) on standard broadband services and 122,000 using fiber-to-the-premises (FTTP) connectivity.
Medium-sized and large organizations are being affected as well, with around 35,000 of these larger firms yet to upgrade to dedicated ethernet or other gigabit-capable systems.
Poor connectivity is a serious IT challenge, particularly as data volumes and communications traffic increases, the study warned. Network capacity demand from UK businesses saw a 30% increase over the course of 2024, Beaming said.
Insufficient bandwidth can cause a range of issues, the study found. Overloaded networks can delay customer interactions and affect workflows by slowing access to cloud applications and communications tools. They can also force businesses into periods of downtime that prevent communication or transactions.
There’s a security aspect as well, as network congestion can mask suspicious activity and allow malware into systems, making firms more vulnerable to cyber-attacks.
Businesses are straining their bandwidth
Bandwidth and connectivity problems can create significant costs for businesses, according to Tom Grange, director of connectivity business at Bionic, and firms need to consider how they manage internet infrastructure.
Video calling tools and Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) systems, for example, can demand a lot of bandwidth, so firms should ensure VoIP has dedicated resources to maintain call quality, Grange told ITPro. Peer-to-peer file sharing can also drain bandwidth, as well as overcrowded connections.
"When multiple employees are using the same, single connection, more devices will use more bandwidth. Because of this, each device is automatically allotted a smaller portion of available bandwidth which can result in slower data transfer," Grange said.
How can businesses mitigate the issue?
Provisioning sufficient bandwidth and ensuring internet connections can handle peak traffic is key, Beaming’s report stated, as well as implementing Quality of Service (QoS) measures that prioritize critical applications.
Firms can employ advanced traffic management systems, for example - these are tools that can be utilized to manage network traffic more efficiently, prevent network congestion, and ensure smoother operations.
Proactive monitoring is also useful. By keeping a close eye on network performance, businesses can identify potential issues and address them before they become problematic.
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