ANDOVER companies are having their business hampered by Internet connection problems.

Test Valley Borough Council, which owns the land at West Portway Business Park, is in talks with BT to try to speed up broadband provision – but meanwhile up to an hour a day is being lost to businesses while the Internet is down.

Amanda Squires, a delivery driver at auto-electrical distributor SED, in Arkwright Gate, said the Internet usually goes down between two and four times a day, for up to 30 minutes each time.

This means that orders are delayed, resulting in a longer day to catch up on work.

Amanda said: “The Internet service in Portway West is in the age of the horse and cart. It is hampering daily transactions and the phone links.

“The computer periodically drops out so it is out of action for about half an hour at a time, which means that if there is a customer in the shop we might be trying to produce an invoice or a sale and we can’t do it there and then.

“It causes a lot of stress once or twice a day on average, but sometimes three to four times a day.

“Sometimes it affects the phone, which means that customers can’t ring us or we are halfway through a conversation with a customer.

“Because we are new in this |area, the aim was to establish |new customers and this does |hamper it.”