Tuesday, Australian Financial Review, 29 May 2007, p.49 excerpt
Telecommunications is critical for the survival and growth of most small to medium-sized enterprises. And they still want better services, reports Mark Fenton-Jones...
According to the Australian SME telecommunications white paper - a survey of 5000 small and medium-sized enterprises conducted in March and April this year - 71 per cent of SMEs say they could not be in business without communications. Only 1 per cent regard it as unimportant.
The results of the survey will be distributed to telco and other business service providers who want a better understanding of how SMEs use telecommunications...
From the SME perspective, price (for 85 per cent) is the key factor when choosing a provider for fixed-line and mobile services, while download speed (35 per cent) is the key deciding factor for internet services...
Other important elements are call quality for fixed lines, network coverage for mobile services and price for internet services.
Country users like Dwight Walker, the managing director of WWWalker Web Development, which is based in Orange, NSW, express frustration at the lack of wireless internet coverage in country areas...
Those who are better informed - about 47 per cent of SMEs - would consider removing their fixed line and replacing it with VoIP to conduct day-to-day business communications.
Walker got broadband so he could speak for longer with a Sydney client using VoIP, without the high costs of a fixed line or mobile connection.
"Suddenly Sydney is not so far away," he says. But he still intends to keep the fixed-line phone for customers without VoIP...
Interestingly, the survey found that 80 per cent of SMEs like having all telecommunications - fixed, mobile and data - on the one bill.
However,... Walker take[s] a contrary view.
Walker likes the idea that he's not locked into one company and that he has the choice of picking the best provider for each type of telecommunications...