Key players in the telecoms industry, small business user groups, and the telecoms regulator Oftel have been working together to improve the information available to small businesses about telecoms services and products. The work has been undertaken through the Small Business Task Force, chaired and organised by Oftel.

In August 2000 the Task Force launched an independently edited website www.TelecomsAdvice.org.uk. sponsored by telecoms industry players and with a foreword by Oftel. The aim of this site is to address the knowledge gaps that many small businesses & their advisors experience in relation to telecommunications and the Internet including, crucially, a clear idea of how much services cost and how they can benefit a business.

The Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) has worked with other members of the Small Business Task Force to draw up a code of conduct between Network Service Providers, Installers and Maintainers of Telecommunications Equipment. The code will help reduce waiting times for small businesses requiring work on their telecoms systems. For more information on the code visit the TIA’s website www.tia.org.uk

For further information on the Small Business Task Force, please visit www.TelecomsAdvice.org.uk.

For past task force initiatives, please click here.  Please note that some of this information is now superceeded by the TelecomsAdvice website.

For general (non-telecoms specific) advice for small businesses see the small business service at www.businesslink.org or www.sbs.gov.uk