Bob Thompson, Head of e-business at King Sturge said: 'In the not too distant future, there may only be two types of buildings: connected ones and empty ones. As bandwidth becomes more business critical, any shortfall in its supply at a building level will begin to have more impact on location and value.'

The report forecasts that demand for connectivity among the business community is set to increase further. But this demand is not being met by supply. As demand takes off, the ability to fund the supply of infrastructure is being compromised by falling share prices and negative investor sentiment.

For each of the past five years, the researchers have surveyed a cross-section of businesses to see how they access Internet services. This year they found the 56.6 k modem is still used by 30% of those surveyed, but 42% use a 2Mbps leased line, a growth of nearly 80% from 2000. But despite huge growth in average access speeds, the survey records the highest-ever level of dissatisfaction: 67% of respondents were not content with access speeds and 58% will need to upgrade soon.