CEOs surveyed on broadband: want more but don't know what they've got.

Stuart Corner
Tuesday, 21 October 2008 08:32

Opinion and Analysis

Unfortunately it is not clear from the report how much of the benefits they believe will accrue from them being able to get faster broadband access for their own use and how much they expect these benefits to result from the population as a whole, and hence their customers, getting faster broadband.

Nor were they asked any questions about the whether the limitations of current broadband services precluded them from any specific activities.

CEOs were asked whether their business was likely to upgrade its connection to the high speed broadband network when it becomes available Almost three quarters of all firms indicated that they were likely to upgrade.

The survey found that reliability of service was the dominant factor influencing the extent of uptake to high speed broadband, with half the companies surveyed ranking this as a first-order factor in their decision to connect. This was followed by the price of service, ranked by 35.6 percent of firms as a first level factor.

Yet the survey did not show overwhelming demand for higher speed broadband when price came into the equation. A quarter of all companies surveyed indicate a willingness to pay a premium price for their business to gain access to higher speed broadband whilst nearly half of the respondents would not pay a premium.

Despite this, Damien Tampling Lead Partner, Technology, Media and Telecommunications at Deloitte Australia claimed that "There is no doubt that there is a pent up demand for broadband and as the survey indicates almost 75 percent of businesses have indicated that they are likely to upgrade."

Maybe, but not at any price, and the survey results gave no indication of the extent to which businesses are pushing the limits of currently available commercial services: surely a crucial factor in assessing demand for any future, faster services.

A couple of questions seeking to determine whether businesses current choice of broadband services were constrained primarily by the price they were willing to pay or by their inability to get access to any faster service would have been enormously useful  and would have given a much better indication of the level of pent up demand for the NBN