New figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show that almost 90 per cent of connections to the internet are now via broadband.

Those companies still using dial-up are therefore at a significant competitive disadvantage, as the fast speeds and better productivity offered by broadband are now the norm.

The growth of broadband has been in tandem with the growth of SME IT services, and the connection type now accounts for 86.1 per cent of all internet portals. This is up from 83.6 per cent in March this year.

Competitive packages and its common availability are driving broadband uptake forward.

An ONS spokesman said: "The market share of broadband connections has been increasing since the index began in 2001, reflecting its growing popularity, widespread availability and the competitive connection packages offered by ISPs.

"In June 2007, the indices of active subscriptions for dial-up and broadband connections were 31.7 and 202.7 respectively when compared with their base of 100 in March 2005."

Research for Connect in 2007 found that 88 per cent of UK businesses were interested in Disaster Recovery systems primarily to protect their critical applications and data