The Opal Office Broadband Report reveals that many businesses could be benefiting from much faster broadband connections meaning potential new sales opportunities, revenue streams, and increased margins for resellers as their customers benefit from the advanced technologies and applications available with super-fast broadband.
The report, available in full on Opal.co.uk also calls for greater transparency in the marketplace to ensure that businesses are given honest information about the fastest speed that can be achieved over their connection. The study builds on a recent Ofcom report, which highlighted a ‘lack of robust information’ available on the actual broadband speeds businesses can receive.
Central London (EC, WC and W postcodes) leads the way with almost half of the city’s businesses able to achieve a connection of between 8 - 24Mbps while Irish hub of commerce, Belfast, came in second closely followed by Glasgow. Large cities, Manchester, Leeds and Liverpool also featured highly in the hotspots list as well as some surprise entries from Wigan and Blackpool.
The following shows the postcode area and the percentage businesses able to achieve speeds of between 8 and 24Mbps
Central London (EC,WC and W postcodes) 44%
Belfast 35%
Glasgow 33%
Liverpool 32%
Manchester 31%
Leeds 31%
Sunderland 30%
Wigan 29%
Blackpool 29%
Southend on Sea 28%
Opal released the report as part of the launch of its new business grade, low price broadband offering which offers speeds of up to 24Mbps.
Opal will offer the broadband, which utilises ADSL2+ technology and network prioritisation, either as a component-based product, allowing resellers and systems integrators to build their own bundles, or as a ready built package with up front commissions. Opal’s new business grade broadband product aggressively undercuts BT and has already seen 10,000 new customers sign up during the post-Christmas period.
Nathan Stenson, Opal’s Director of Wholesale, said: “This report is fantastic news for the areas identified as hotspots as the results indicate that businesses in those locations can have access to some of the fastest broadband speeds available, along with the many benefits that this brings. Resellers should use this information as a basis to ensure they are selling the very fastest speeds possible to their customers.
“Business working practices are rapidly changing, meaning demand for prioritised high speed broadband technology has never been greater, and partners, more than ever, want a resilient provider with plenty of room for margin.
“The new business grade broadband is a powerful product and is another example of how Opal continues to leverage the investment and scale of the group’s NGN.”