A RISING tide of frustration for businesses erupted today in Greater York over lack of access to BT's multi-million investment in the latest high-speed broadband lines.

A huge survey designed to get responses from more than 500 York businesses was launched this morning by Science City York and Yorkshire Forward, the regional development agency in order to go beyond the anger and get to the facts.

Firms are complaining that while BT has given York "most favoured" status with two new ADSL enabled exchanges putting the city in the high tech "fast lane" in Britain, they cannot take advantage of it.

Science City authorities fear that with only a small proportion of firms able to use the super-fast communications system the economic development of the city will be "seriously inhibited."

The ADSL technology, which can download information up to 40 times faster than an ordinary telephone line, is available for small businesses only within a three mile radius of both the converted exchanges at Stonebow and Melrosegate .

It means that vast areas on the outskirts of the city are unable to connect to ADSL - and that includes at least one firm on the newly-built "e-location" York Business Park and the whole of Clifton Moor, the most intense commercial and industrial area of York nicknamed "silicon vale".

There is concern that proposals for future huge business developments, particularly in the Monks Cross area, may not be able to take advantage of the bandwidth.

And they are unlikely to get connected for the foreseeable future because BT complains that there is a poor uptake by York businesses with only 215 customers in the "enabled" areas, arguing that it would not be worthwhile making the same huge investment elsewhere.

Science City authorities are also worried about confusion arising from a perceived breakdown in communications between BT, businesses in the area and service providers.

BT, which earlier this month staged an initiative at the Royal York Hotel to increase awareness and take-up of broadband, blames the more than 70 service providers nationally for not marketing the ADSL facilities well.

"We are not at fault," said Ann Crowther, press and PR manager for the BT group. "We provide the infrastructure, but offer ADSL only as a wholesale product through service providers.

"Under the competition rules we are not allowed to recommend any of them, not even our own service provider, BT Wholesale."

But organisations like the York Inward Investment Board are pressing hard for something to be done. Paul Murphy the IIB chief executive said: "Representatives of American firms who have had this technology for years and take it for granted, are astonished to find it is not readily available in the UK.

"We would be delighted to work with any service provider to market the availability of broadband in the York area as part of our sales pitch as a high tech city."

The survey will map out the real demand for broadband across the business community in the York area and gauge the level of awareness of the advantages of the system particularly to small businesses.

Anna Rooke, spokesperson for Science City, said: "We are launching the survey because we have substantial anecdotal evidence from the business community that broadband needs are not being met in the city.

"We wanted a qualitative analysis of the problem. There have been great success stories but the majority of comments are that people can't get the broadband.

"We also suspect that there is an information gap - that the benefits are not understood. We need to understand how they perceive the facility."

The survey, conducted by York form Questions Answered could reach 500 firms, including the community of 230 businesses in Science City York plus a representative sample of ventures across all sectors, using the York business panel put together by the York economic development group.

She urged all businesses in the York area to log on to the survey (see Business Pink index page on this site).

Footnote: While businesses in "enabled" parts of York are not taking full advantage of ADSL, a lot of private individuals are, with 38,000 homes connected. Also linked to ADSL are 36 per cent of the city's libraries, 57 per cent of schools and all of the colleges.