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Global internet access is moving away from slow access (like dial up) to high speed broadband connection. As patience moves southwards and content richness northwards, fast internet is a social necessity. Broadband connections can be of four major types – cable, fibre optic, digital subscriber line (known as DSL) and satellite. High speed internet is necessary for social and economic development. Several countries have mega plans for nationwide fibre rollout as part of their digital agenda. In many geographically smaller and well developed countries (like the UK) fibre penetration is already quite high. In 2011 itself, more than 33% of the population in the UK had access to high speed internet. Some of the reasons why there is a global surge in need for speed are – • Videos everywhere: We now have videos everywhere – chatting, product or movie reviews, customer testimonials, experiential marketing, music, corporate profiles, exhibitions, conferences and other similar places or applications. Video is bandwidth hungry. So users need high speed internet to stream and watch videos smoothly. This requirement will go up until content richness hit some kind of a glass ceiling. • Age and income are also important social drivers for higher internet demand. We spoke about the patience of users. Patience seems to drop as age of internet users come down and economic affluence goes up. This trend is also expected to continue. • Social benefits like e-Learning, online retail, real time collaboration are important drivers for the hunger for speed. As these sectors continue to gain in popularity so will the need for higher and higher internet speed. • Businesses and enterprises also benefit heavily from internet speed. A recent survey found out that higher net speed strengthens collaborative approaches, mitigate risks of business continuity and facilitate the internal organization of work. Infrastructure speed also enhances the performance and productivity of the entire value cloud (not chain). This means 360 degree collaboration with partners, suppliers, employees and customers. Business adoption of high internet speed provides tangible benefits, which are achievable and measurable. In the future, businesses are expected to adopt high speed internet more wholeheartedly. Some of the reasons and trends that experts cite are – using software as a service (SaaS) or cloud computing services, making internal business processes more efficient and effective, strengthening collaborative approaches within the enterprise, facilitating exchanges with external partners, enhancing customer engagements, connecting with employees even if they have cheap mobile phones and introducing new products or services. A recent survey by the Oxford Economics research program finds that two thirds of the enterprises surveyed feel that technology is important for longevity and sustainable growth. Most, if not all businesses, now have a global outlook. This outlook makes infrastructure critical. We all know that information is power. And infrastructure is required to make the information travel across any business or enterprise covering all locations. Most telecom companies (manufacturers and service providers) are gearing up for the age of high speed internet in our palms. 3G is almost passé, 4G is a reality and 5G is on the drawing board. Today some models of pricewise cheap mobile phones have made internet affordable even in economically backward geographies. They are an excellent productivity asset for businesses. Enterprises, small and big, can engage with their employees wherever they are and collaborate. This is particularly good for sales, service and other similar employees who have to travel a lot. Unitel Direct Limited, a premier internet solution provider in the UK was an active participant in the study. In Unitel Direct reviews, clients have testified to have experienced a sudden increase in customer base for their respective businesses.
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