More than 20 percent of respondents said they would not use any type of broadband service in their main offices. The study, conducted by In-Stat/MDR, surveyed 109 "key decision makers" at large businesses between April and July of 2002.
But that doesn't mean that they're not using Web- and server-based applications to share data between office locations, said Kneko Burney, director of business infrastructure and services research at In-Stat/MDR. Many are sticking with dedicated lines for these needs, rather than looking into DSL (digital subscriber line) service or other broadband options.
In determining the amount of bandwidth companies need in the first place, almost 70 percent of those surveyed said security and "hosted or Internet-accessible applications" were important factors for their main offices. Security was not as major a concern when determining bandwidth needs for branch offices, however.
For those willing to test the broadband waters, DSL is the most popular choice, with 37 percent of respondents saying they would choose DSL for their main office over cable, fixed wireless and satellite Internet connections.
While broadband services have begun to catch on with consumers, spending on telecom services by major corporations has slowed. Companies have also become cautious about new investments, because of financial troubles at some broadband providers.
I work with a family construction company with a turnover of about 3 million a year. Currently we pay our employees, between 30 and 40 people, through the company's bank web page. We use telstra and its ADSL service. On thursday 24th Oct the ADSL connection went down before we started paying our workers. It was down from about 1.00pm. Telstra tech support said it would be down till at least 5.00pm. The wages all have to be in by 5.00pm or else the worker do not get paid that day. Very bad for employer/employee relations.
The ADSL connection was lock to Telstra so we had no option of changing to another ISP.
This is not the first time that the Telstra ADSL network fell over and disrupted our work operations.
We are finding that the reliability, with ADSL, is not there. Our business is not tied up with the internet that much. It could be devasting to some who needed to rely on a solid connection.
Our answer to the wages problem was for me to go home and pay the employee over my modem connection.
I can understand why some business give broadband a wide berth