The results of the Sunday Independent Business Owners Survey 2015 has found that 19pc of SMEs see poor broadband as the biggest issue facing their business in 2015. The survey also found that, Irish SMEs sell comparatively little online.

Only 7pc of respondents said that online sales make up more than half of their business, with a further one in ten saying that they sell between 20pc to 50pc of their products or services online. A third of respondents said that they sell less than 20pc of their goods or services online, while exactly half of respondents said that they sell nothing via the internet.

A recent report Akami State of the Internet found that while average Irish broadband speeds are now among the best in the world, there is staggering inequality in internet speeds across the country. The Akami report for the first three months of 2015 showed that while the average broadband speed was 17Mb/s, ranking in the top 10 average speeds worldwide, speeds above 15Mb/s were available to just 21pc of the population. The vast majority of the Irish population, 69pc, have access to broadband speeds over a basic 4Mb/s, with more than a quarter, 27 pc, and dealing with staggering slow speeds of less than 4 Mb/s.

For more on this report please visit: www.independent.ie/business/small-business/poor-broadband-service-is-crippling-small-irish-firms-as-half-of-businesses-selling-nothing-online-31436678.html