According to a study, poor mobile phone service, especially difficulty connecting to the internet, costs small companies £18.8 billion annually.
The UK economy loses £7.7 billion annually due to poor mobile phone service and missed production.
Because of staff struggles with bad connections, microbusinesses, and SMEs who provide workers with work phones are losing an average of one hour of weekly work time per employee.
>See also: How 5G mobile technology will help your small business
Mobile connection concerns cost medium-sized firms 250 hours of labor per week.
A microbusiness was deemed to have less than nine workers, a small enterprise between 10 and 49, and a medium firm between 50 and 250.
The biggest damaged industry is professional services, which lose £5.3 billion in income annually, costing the economy £2.8 billion annually.
>See also: How your rural business can get a £3,500 boost for better broadband
Poor connection costs the retail sector £3.7 billion annually in lost sales, costing the British economy £560 million.
The poor connection costs businesses when almost three-quarters (71%) of SMEs consider where they may cut expenses.
According to mobile network Three, 32% of SMEs think they are overpaying for phone contracts and are searching for ways to reduce expenses.
Meanwhile, 29% of SMEs are concerned that lacking adequate technology may cause them to lose workers. This percentage increases to over 50% (48%) for medium-sized enterprises, which is particularly concerning when a skills shortage affects most sectors.
More than a third of SMEs (36%) feel improved mobile phone coverage would improve their performance, and one in five (20%) are concerned that using outdated mobile phone technology may cause their companies to fall behind.
Insufficient mobile support
This seems to be somewhat the fault of the mobile phone business. Nearly 50% of SMEs (48%) claim that the technical jargon used in the technology sector is difficult to grasp.
According to the Federation of Small Businesses’ Craig Beaumont, who is in charge of external affairs, 57 percent of small businesses in rural areas and 45 percent of those in the city experience unreliable voice connectivity.
“We need economic development and productivity across the UK, and that depends on top-notch digital, mobile, and voice connection – 4G and 5G must be open to everybody,” Beaumont added. Small firms may utilize this to innovate, attract new clients, and accelerate the recovery after really difficult times. Still, they can’t do this if they are struggling with inadequate connection.
YouGov and Development Economics surveyed over 1,000 micro and SME businesses based in the UK for the research.
