The companies have 1.3 million customers or customer
organisations in the UK, despite the fact that the ISP market
contains some very large competitors with significant marketing
budgets. Ofcom's research found that the market for smaller ISPs
earn is worth £1.15 billion a year.
Niche ISPs, which are defined as those with fewer than 150
employees, were the subject of research carried out by research
company Recom for Ofcom.
Most of the niche ISP business is in serving other small
companies: 88% of the ISPs serviced the micro-company market of
firms with fewer than 10 employees, while 86% serviced the small
company market of firms with up to 30 employees.
While 30% of the ISPs said that their customers were mostly
local a surprising 70% said that their customers were spread all
over the UK.
The ISPs themselves believe that it is their small size and
approachability which makes them attractive to customers. 34% of
the ISPs said that they believed that customers came to them
because the technical support was a person on the phone rather than
a series of automated systems and long telephone queues.
"Delivery [is] by fully qualified engineers, not a call centre.
We can identify and diagnose the problem and surgically solve the
problem in real time," said one ISP.
Niche ISPs feel that there is not a level playing field with the
big operators when it comes to regulation. 29% of the companies
said that the main support they want is better, fairer regulation,
whereas only 13% said financial support would be more valuable.
One surveyed company manager said regulators could help “by
creating an environment where small providers can compete.
Co-existence needs to be able to continue in a healthy, productive
way."
Auxiliary services such as web hosting were said by firms not to
need much regulation, but the provision of broadband internet
access was, said one, "difficult for small suppliers to compete
[in]".
Recom surveyed 313 niche ISPs for Ofcom.
