A new study has claimed that SMEs are losing £18.77bn in revenue due to poor connectivity.
The survey of over 1,000 micro and SME businesses based in the UK was commissioned by Three UK.
The study has warned that businesses, which provide their workers with phones, are losing out on an average of one hour per colleague each week on ‘working time’ due to poor connectivity.
And this is costing the UK is losing £18.77bn a year on average, while an output of £7.7bn is potentially being lost to the British economy each year.
Areas hit the hardest were the professional services, including legal, accounting and media businesses, with research estimating £5.3bn in revenue is lost each year as a result of the poor connectivity.
“As the cost of living crisis continues to bite, it’s alarming to see that £7.7bn is being lost from the UK economy every year due to the poor technology stifling SMEs’ performance,” said Three UK director of business propositions and go to market Snehal Bhudia.
“Technology providers must therefore better tailor their services towards the needs of SMEs; ensuring their offerings are really simple, giving them the tools to understand what’s happening in their business and doing so with a level of service that’s usually only reserved for large corporates.”
The survey which was conducted by YouGov and Development Economics, also found that nearly a third (32pc) of SMEs believe that they are paying too much for phone contracts and looking to cut costs.
A similar figure (36pc) believe that business will improve if there’s better mobile phone connectivity.
Additionally, one in five (20pc) SMEs said they are concerned about not knowing how to use the latest mobile phone technology.