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If you have high speed access to the Internet, you can do business faster. So, let's explore the high speed Internet market in Slovenia. Why is high speed Internet access useful; how much speed does a company or entrepreneur need; and what are the advantages and disadvantages of continuous connection to the Internet? These days, almost anyone or any business can have high speed Internet access. You can choose between cable or broadband access. More demanding users such as large corporations may elect to have a fibre optic connection, which is available in the main cities. The advantages of high speed Internet are fast data transfer, controlled expenditure (flat fee), uninterrupted connection (always-on or 24/7), immediate e-mail communication, faster e-business, more efficient use of company servers, access to more demanding services (videoconferencing, multimedia, telemedicine, e-learning, virtual office or working from distance location, etc.), static IP addresses, free telephone lines, choice (less speed - cheaper; more speed - more expensive), faster software updating, VoIP telephony, etc. It is hard to separate some disadvantage of high speed Internet. "Always-on" connections are more exposed to viruses and/or network attacks, but this depends of the nature of the work. In any case it is essential that companies, organizations and individuals protect their networks, servers and computers from viruses and attacks with firewalls, filters, antivirus software and other tools. Almost all Internet service providers have their own firewalls installed on their servers, so the first line of defence is already there. Then there are usually tools for protecting children and e-mail (undesirable content and SPAM filters). The third line of defence depends on users. Need for speed There is broadband and "broadband". For individual users, a 1Mbps connection is usually more than good enough. Larger organizations and companies usually start with 10Mbps, which is why many demand optical connections. Because the fibre optic infrastructure in Slovenia is still being developed, many of these users opt for some form of local optical connection and demand a guaranteed bandwidth within the xDSL or cable networks. Less demanding companies and users are quite often content with slightly slower connections. The average demand among companies is a speed around 2Mbps. Slovenian Internet Service Providers According to the RIS project, the leading source on information society issues in Slovenia, all the major and medium-sized companies in Slovenia have access to the Internet; as do 97% of the micro and 99% of the small companies. In terms of market share, Siol is the biggest Internet service provider (ISP) followed by Amis, Softnet, Voljatel, Telemach and then S5.net. The Research of the Internet in Slovenia project (RIS) is conducted by the Centre for Methodology and Informatics at the Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Ljubljana, which, since 1996, has been systematically studying all aspects of the information society in Slovenia and has produced over 60 substantial reports on a variety of information and communication technology (ICT) related topics. According to the latest report, companies, organizations and individuals can choose an ISP from the following: Amis (ADSL), Arnes (ADSL), Cetra (cable), Net.si (cable), S5 net (ADSL and cable), Sinfonika (ADSL), Siol (ADSL), Softnet (ADSL), Studio Proteus (cable), T-2 (VDSL), Triera (cable), UPC Telemach (cable) and Voljatel (ADSL and cable). Business packages for broadband Internet access costs between SIT 8,800 (EUR 36.72) and SIT 18,500 (EUR 77.19) on average.