Poor internet connections slow down businesses

Rotorua cyber cafes are backing calls for competition in the broadband market, claiming slow internet speeds are forcing them to turn away business.
They are having to turn away gamers because slow speeds mean their systems can only cope with a couple playing online games at any given time.
When brothers Jack and Jae Lee get the urge to engage people from around the world in virtual mortal combat they have a limited choice of venue.
The maximum internet speed in the country is about 3.5 megabits a second.
Telecom has announced it will increase speeds to about 24 megabits a second by Christmas, which would allow services like video calling and internet television to become readily available in New Zealand.
Local businesses say boosting speeds and lowering prices can't come soon enough.
Business leaders around the country are calling on the Government to step in and make Telecom, the country's main telecommunications company, "unbundle" its network, which would effectively allow competitors to provide similar services.
The Lee siblings are fans of the Warcraft III online role-playing game. The brothers spend their spare time in the efunz internet cafem in Tutanekai St - one of the few such businesses in Rotorua equipped with a high capacity internet connection, able to cater for online gamers.
Efunz is hooked up to a 2.5 megabit per second connection through the TelstraClear network but other such businesses don't yet have that luxury.
Max van der Leden, manager of the Rotorua internet cafe Cybershed in Pukuatua St, said an urgent boost for internet speeds "would help everyone".
The slow connection speeds were stopping the whole country from progressing, he said.
He was having to cater only for those wanting to check email.
"We can't have more than about two gamers on at once, otherwise everything starts to slow down. We have really expensive connection costs, about $1300 for a 512 kilobit a second connection."
Other businesses canvassed by the Daily Post said they were keen for Telecom to free up its control over the country's telecommunications network and allow competing companies to offer internet services.
Web page designer Sandy Nasonte from Portal Planet said an increase in broadband speeds would make her job much quicker and easier.
"It does take me a while to get a site uploaded. I guess it depends what you need to do. I have managed to get to speeds of up to 150 to 200kb/s, which is pretty good. But as a whole, New Zealand definitely needs to have quicker speeds."
Vint Cerf, the man commonly regarded as the creator of the internet, last week said he would call on communications minister David Cunliffe to step in and regulate Telecom.
Because Telecom controlled virtually the entire retail and wholesale broadband market, there was not enough competition driving prices down for customers and ensuring "open access", he said.
"There does not appear to be much understanding or appreciation of the potential business opportunities awaiting the deployment of broadband ... What's worse than a regulated monopoly? The answer is an unregulated monopoly."