Iowa businesses want more Internet bandwidth

CEDAR RAPIDS - A new survey finds thousands of Iowa businesses want more Internet bandwidth - faster speeds - and thousands more lack backup Internet services.

Connect Iowa, a subsidiary of Connected Nation, on Tuesday said 13,000 Internet-connected businesses want more bandwidth. Of those, 31 percent reported they are unable to get faster service where they are located.

The survey also found 47,000 Internet-connected Iowa businesses do not have redundant or backup Internet service. If anything were to happen to their service, the businesses would be unable to connect to the Internet.

'Our annual business survey shows how vital it is to continue efforts to bring broadband to every corner of the state,” said Amy Kuhlers, Connect Iowa state program manager. 'Despite the great strides we've made, much work remains to ensure that all Iowa businesses have access to adequate broadband services that are so vital to today's economic landscape.”

Other findings from the survey:

' One in five Internet-connected businesses rely on cloud computing services for the operations. The most popular uses of cloud computing are data storage and backup, file sharing, and website hosting.

' More than one in eight businesses said it is important for new employees to be able to create or edit a mobile application, while one in 11 say it is important for new employees to know at least one programming language.

' Almost half of Iowa businesses (48 percent) say they spend their own time and resources training new employees on the software that their business uses.

' Online sales represent more than $20 billion in revenues for Iowa businesses each year.

' Broadband adoption by Iowa businesses has increased from 72 percent in 2010 to 81 percent in 2014.

' The percentage of Iowa businesses that allow employees to telecommute continues to increase, from 18 percent in 2010 to 27 percent in 2014.

The Connect Iowa report is based on a telephone survey of 600 businesses across the state.