The City of London (COL) is dedicated to providing high-quality services for the residents and business communities of the ‘Square Mile’. COL believes that a ‘digital divide’ exists in the City, and SMEs are unable to afford high-speed broadband lines from dedicated leased line providers that serve the City’s larger business. High-speed broadband in the UK is defined as providing download speeds of at least 24 Mbit/s to users. It is faster and more reliable than traditional broadband speeds. Benefits for SMEs include:

• Greater use of cloud technology for file storage
• Upload and download large files at much faster speeds
• Reduction in travel expenses
• Improved video and voice connections using the internet (e.g. Skype, webcams, high definition video conferencing)

Based on current publicly available information, no operator has plans to provide a high-speed, affordable broadband network for SMEs across the City. In addition, mobile coverage is variable due to the density of the City, an issue that can be compounded by the large number of day visitors who use the wireless networks. COL is therefore embarking on a programme with the objective of achieving ubiquitous high-speed and affordable wireless and fixed connectivity across the City. The purpose of this market consultation is to engage with SMEs to establish market demand and supply in the City. We warmly welcome any response you can provide to the questions below.

Any questions or queries should be directed to connectivity@cityoflondon.gov.uk.

Privacy statement: This research is being undertaken by the City of London Corporation to establish the level of and location of demand for high-speed broadband services in the City. Cooperation with this research is voluntary. Your identity and response will be treated as confidential, will be stored securely, and will be used only for research purposes. Your details will not be used to send unsolicited mail nor will we pass on email addresses to others for this purpose. Respondents are entitled to have all of the record of the research destroyed or deleted at any stage.

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* 1. Please provide us with contact details for your business

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* 2. What size is your business?

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* 3. What broadband package does your business subscribe to in terms of download speeds?

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* 4. Please tell us your current internet service provider (ISP)

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* 5. What actual download speeds does your business consistently experience from its ISP? If you don’t know, please use www.broadbandspeedchecker.co.uk for a safe and fast check of your Internet speed.

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* 6. How reliable is your broadband connection?

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* 7. If you do experience a fault with your broadband connection, does your service level agreement with your ISP specify a time period within which these faults are resolved?

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* 8. What do you pay per month for your broadband connection?

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* 9. Is your actual connection speed sufficient for your business needs?

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* 10. If your business is not connected to high-speed broadband, do you think it would benefit from doing so? If so, in what ways?

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* 11. If you have recently enquired about the cost for a high-speed broadband connection what price have you been quoted?

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* 12. If you answered the previous question, is this cost affordable for your business?

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* 13. How much per month would you be willing to pay for the bandwidth you need for your business?

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* 14. Do you think enough is being done to inform SMEs about the benefits of high-speed broadband?

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* 15. Please rate your mobile connectivity (3G and 4G) when at your office

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* 16. Please rate mobile connectivity (3G and 4G) across the City as a whole

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