New research by Onecom, the UK’s largest independent telecoms provider, reveals SMEs on average spend £2,052 a year on telecommunication services, an increase of as much as 40% since 2016. 

Onecom believes this increase has been largely driven by the need for SMEs to keep pace with new emerging digital services such as cloud, the Internet of Things, advances in fibre communications, and now more recently the roll-out of 5G. Despite this, many SMEs describe the telecoms service they receive as poor, and nearly two thirds (65%) are considering switching services over the next 12 months.

Fixed line has the highest percentage of SMEs that describe the service they receive as poor (13%), followed by 10% who say this about their work mobile phones, and 8% about their internet service at work.

As well as many SMEs looking to switch telecoms providers, 75% are also considering upgrading services.    Some 35% are looking to update to a 5G mobile service, followed by 31% who plan to sign up for super fast broadband.

Ben Dowd, Onecom CEO, said: “The importance of telecoms to the success of an organisation has never been greater, and with the roll-out of 5G alongside the planned increase in investment in super fast broadband, it is only set to get bigger. When assessing your business’s telecoms requirements, there are a number of considerations to factor in including the nature of your business and its operations; staff numbers; the level of communication needed internally and with clients; the number of communication channels and sophistication of communications."