Broadband News
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Broadband press stuck in a time-warp
04 Nov 2009 | 22.01 Europe/London
Several websites are reporting that the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) has come out and said the Government is "stuck in a time-warp over broadband speeds." But with the story originally emerging five months ago, it looks like the UK's politicians aren't the only ones.
While the story still resonates in a Britain edging towards a Digital Britain Bill, the FSB's comments were first published within a couple of days of the final draft of the Digital Britain report. The Federation said a third of small businesses already have the 2Mbit/s broadband connections the Government is basing it's universal service commitment on - but are still struggling with "day to day business activities:" emailing, marketing, buying and selling. Despite these firms relying on the Internet for half of their annual turnover, their connection speeds are letting them down.
And quotes taken at the time from John Wright, the National Chairman of the FSB, have been reprinted over the past couple of days too. "By 2012, £1 in every £5 will come from online commerce, but if small businesses are to compete, the Government must take bolder action," he declared. " Around 60 per cent of small businesses want a minimum broadband speed of 8 Mbit/s. But with Japan leading the way, making high speed broadband of 90 Mbit/s available to everyone, the FSB urges the Government to do more."
But that was on June the 18th - as is clear from the original press release. It appears it wasn't too widely covered at the time, picked up by business news outlets like SME Web and local newspapers like the Herald Express in South Devon. So why are some technology websites only covering it now? A quick search on Google News shows eleven related articles have been published in the past couple of days; Top 10 Broadband, for instance, has put something up on it in the past few hours.
Why the story's popped back up now is anyone's guess. As for why it's for why it's spreading, the implication is that while the Internet may be full of news, it's not necessarily full of journalism. When an apparently relevant story is covered by one news outlet, it's fair game for any - and there's not necessarily time to check it out. That's not meant as a criticism - just a statement of fact - but when you're talking about being "stuck in a time-warp," isn't it ironic, don't you think?
While the story still resonates in a Britain edging towards a Digital Britain Bill, the FSB's comments were first published within a couple of days of the final draft of the Digital Britain report. The Federation said a third of small businesses already have the 2Mbit/s broadband connections the Government is basing it's universal service commitment on - but are still struggling with "day to day business activities:" emailing, marketing, buying and selling. Despite these firms relying on the Internet for half of their annual turnover, their connection speeds are letting them down.
And quotes taken at the time from John Wright, the National Chairman of the FSB, have been reprinted over the past couple of days too. "By 2012, £1 in every £5 will come from online commerce, but if small businesses are to compete, the Government must take bolder action," he declared. " Around 60 per cent of small businesses want a minimum broadband speed of 8 Mbit/s. But with Japan leading the way, making high speed broadband of 90 Mbit/s available to everyone, the FSB urges the Government to do more."
But that was on June the 18th - as is clear from the original press release. It appears it wasn't too widely covered at the time, picked up by business news outlets like SME Web and local newspapers like the Herald Express in South Devon. So why are some technology websites only covering it now? A quick search on Google News shows eleven related articles have been published in the past couple of days; Top 10 Broadband, for instance, has put something up on it in the past few hours.
Why the story's popped back up now is anyone's guess. As for why it's for why it's spreading, the implication is that while the Internet may be full of news, it's not necessarily full of journalism. When an apparently relevant story is covered by one news outlet, it's fair game for any - and there's not necessarily time to check it out. That's not meant as a criticism - just a statement of fact - but when you're talking about being "stuck in a time-warp," isn't it ironic, don't you think?