The postcode lottery for business-ready telecoms for rural enterprises remains a problem, only exacerbated by HMRC's rushed plans to roll out Making Tax Digital from 2018 onwards. Dave Millett, managing director of telecoms brokerage Equinox, asks what can be done
In his Spring Budget 2017 Chancellor Philip Hammond announced that 3.1 million small businesses are being given breathing space until 2019 before being required to keep digital records and send HMRC quarterly updates.
Other political considerations aside this is a sensible move as we currently have a postcode lottery for access to the quality of broadband and mobile signal that businesses need. City businesses can have problems but rural communities often experience the unholy trinity: no phone coverage, no or sluggish broadband and sometimes eye-watering prices for running in dedicated services.
Let’s look at broadband
The problem
The Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) project was started six years ago to bring superfast broadband to 95% of the country by 2017. That leaves 1.25 million premises without any coverage. The UK Government has chosen to define ‘superfast’ as an internet connection of 24Mbps or above.
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