A user centred approach to determining the impact of faster broadband on small and medium sized enterprises

This paper explores, through interviews with a small number of users, the potential impact of faster broadband speeds on UK based small and medium sized enterprises. The paper describes the actions taken to ameliorate the risk of drawing conclusions from such a small sample of users. The research suggests that all business sectors will benefit from increased broadband speeds with retail, finance, and manufacturing sectors benefitting the most. The business functions benefitting the most are sales and marketing and product development. These insights, which are useful for capacity planners and for marketers, have been reflectively considered using a model for user experience.