More than 80 per cent of small to medium enterprises (SME) are satisfied with their broadband Internet services, according to a study by the Australian Communications and Media Authority.

In the Australian consumer satisfaction with communications series report, the third in ACMA’s Convergence and Communications series, 1800 SMEs were interviewed in April 2008.

The report found 87 per cent of metro and 85 per cent of non-metro SMEs were either “quite satisfied” or “very satisfied” with their broadband Internet service. Only 5 per cent of metro and 8 per cent of non-metro SMEs were either “quite dissatisfied” or “very dissatisfied” with their service.

The report also claimed 89 per cent of metro and 90 per cent of non-metro SMEs were “quite satisfied” or “very satisfied” with their fixed-line services.

Opposition Communications minister, Nick Minchin, claimed the study showed the Rudd government had overstated its case for the National Broadband Network (NBN).

“The Rudd Government is basing its debt-laden plan to build a $43 billion National Broadband Network on the highly questionable assumption that the overwhelming majority of Australians are deeply dissatisfied with the range of existing services," Minchin said.

“There is no evidence in this ACMA report to justify the Rudd Government risking billions of dollars of taxpayers’ money.”

Communication Minister, Stephen Conroy, was not able to respond by the time of publication.

The ACMA study comes on the back of a Strategic Analytics' report released earlier this month that claimed Australia has the 11th highest level of broadband penetration in the world.