4 February 2004
According to a report from Sprint and Covad Communications, 66% of small businesses in the US have broadband Internet connectivity.
The report, entitled �Users of Telecommunication at Work,� indicates that the vast majority of small businesses think that broadband has changed the way their company does business. Specifically, 65.9% think broadband has helped workplace efficiency and 53.3% think it has improved productivity. A notable 22.3% say broadband has allowed their customers to order their products online.
Sprint and Covad commissioned Equation Research to survey 479 small business decision-makers between 13 November and 1 December 2003 and also gained insight on what keeps small businesses with their Internet service provider. The survey determined that just over 70% say they would change or consider changing their service provider if a lower price was offered elsewhere while 43.4% would do the same for faster Net access.
Over one-half of the Sprint/Covad survey respondents worked for companies with between one and five employees, while another 14.4% were at companies with between six and 10 employees and 11.1% were at companies with between 25 and 50 employees.
For an idea of how small businesses� opinions of broadband has changed since 2002, if at all, Yankee Group reported in April 2003 that over 50% of very small, small and medium-size companies were happy that broadband had improved their communication with customers. Other benefits of broadband cited by at least 33% of each size business included reducing travel expenses, shipping expenses and the ability to compete with bigger companies.
By gathering the latest research and news from over 1,000 sources, eMarketer has established itself as the world’s leading provider of internet and e-business statistics. eMarketer’s Web site is at www.emarketer.com
