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magazine
15
Broadband
Business owners nationwide are
calling for telephone exchanges to
be upgraded, but this is unlikely to
happen for a number of years and
with no pressure to complete the
work as quickly as it needs to be done,
businesses will continue to suffer from
poor connectivity.
“Businesses operating in smaller
towns, villages and rural areas are
especially affected because of the last
generation equipment in the exchange
and the distance they are from the
exchange,” explains James Pink, Managing
Director of Pink Connect.
“It’s like trying to use a long, leaky
old garden hose to deliver a brilliantly
high powered jet wash. It’s never going
to work reliably. As a result, many of our
clients can’t run a server, because too
many remote staff need access and their
Broadband can’t cope with the demand.
“Clients are also losing out on work
because of slow speeds. One of the
businesses we work with is a rurally based
creative agency whose designer has to
start sending through documents at
5.30pm, so it reaches his client for 9am –
that’s how long it takes to upload!”
Pink adds: “This ‘last generation’
broadband issue also affects farmers and
property developers who are losing out
on companies renting converted farm
buildings because there simply isn’t a
sufficiently fast and reliable internet
connection to serve their businesses.”
The root of the problem
There are three key reasons for poor
broadband performance: the age and
type of equipment installed at your local
exchange; the line length (the physical
distance from the exchange); and line
degradation (many lines are 30 or 40
years old).
If properties have Fibre available in
their local exchange, they can receive up
to 40Mb download and 10Mb upload.
However, if you’re based in a small town
or a less populated area, the hardware
in your local exchange is likely to be old
and you may only get 1Mb download
capacity and 0.3Mb or even less upload,
resulting in long delays and an unreliable
connection.
Ultimately, this costs businesses time
and money and in some cases leads to
the loss of key accounts and projects.
“The Government has announced
plans to improve internet connections
over the next few years, but businesses
need it now,” says Pink. “Telephone and
As BT passes another milestone in its fibre roll-out (see page 16),
many rural businesses remain stuck in the broadband slow lane.
HereWarwickshire-based Pink Connect explains what such
businesses can do to improve broadband speeds and reliability.
Well connected
1. Check your connection speed
.
A
good place to start is to do a simple test
to see exactly how quickly your service
is downloading and uploading content.
There are lots of sites that let you do this
e.g.
www.speedtest.net
.
2. Find out the maximum speeds in
your area.
Understanding the maximum
broadband service providers will typically
advise businesses to purchase a leased
line which gives 2 or 10Mb both ways
but it’s prohibitively expensive and
therefore inaccessible to most businesses,
especially start-ups and SMEs, which is
why we’ve come up with a number of
alternatives to address this problem.”
These include Bonded and load
balanced ADSLs, which involve bundling
multiple ASDL lines so that customers
benefit from aggregated download
and upload speeds; and a simple, cost
effective satellite solution. A 600mm
satellite dish fitted to clients’ premises
gives them speeds of 10.2Mb download
and 3.6Mb upload for £99 per month.
“As a rural business, we’ve
experienced the same ADSL problems
as many of our clients and that’s why
we’re determined to help businesses
operate quickly, easily and successfully
from anywhere they choose to establish
themselves,” declares Pink.
www.pinkconnect.com
Pink Connect’s top tips for faster broadband
allocated download and upload speeds
in your village or town will give you a
good idea of why your internet speeds
are slow. The distance you are from your
telephone exchange has a significant
impact on the speed of your broadband:
if you’re in a rural area you might
be miles from the nearest exchange,
perhaps even sharing your service with
the next town.
3. Upgrade your browser
.
Are you
using an old version of your browser
to access the internet? If so, this could
be causing delays in loading pages.
Upgrading to the latest version of your
browser should reduce the time it
takes to download pages and pictures.
If you’re using Internet Explorer, make
sure it’s the latest version or consider
using Mozilla Firefox or Google Chrome
instead.
4. Upgrade your router.
Cheap and old
routers and connection cables also have
an impact on internet speeds. Upgrading
to a modern business-grade router can
significantly improve the speed and
reliability of your broadband service and
give you a stronger wireless signal.
5. Replace your micro-filter.
It’s worth
making sure this inexpensive component
is working correctly by swapping it for a
new one costing a couple of pounds.
6. Boost your broadband for good.
If
you’ve tried all of the above and still find
that slow broadband speeds are affecting
your business, you can transform your
broadband for good with one of Pink
Connect’s simple, effective PinkSatellite
solutions available from just £29.95 per
month.
www.pinkconnect.com/broadband-
and-it/satellite-broadband
James Pink, Managing Director,
Pink Connect
It’s like trying
to use a long,
leaky old
garden hose
to deliver a
brilliantly high
powered jet
wash