Businesses on Exeter's largest industrial estate look unlikely to receive universal high-speed broadband for several years.
Current download speeds of under one megabyte per second put the area in the bottom 6% nationally, and 13% globally, on the broadband scale.
A BT spokesman visited the area to answer traders' questions, but was unable to set out a clear time-frame for improvement, instead pointing to examples of business-people in Cornwall and Norfolk having the ability to teleconference with Japan.
Jane Mason, from Matford branding agency Red Rocket, told Radio Exe that the speeds adversely affect her company.
"It means that if we want to upload large files, we either have to do it after hours or before hours", Ms. Mason said.
"I send a lot of files out to newspapers, and I have to make sure I'm the only one online before I do anything.
"We have very bad download and upload speeds and it doesn't seem if anybody cares - especially BT".
Michael Dunn, BT regional manager said that the situation is generally "positive".
"We're moving quicker than we ever have done. The end of 2014 is a worst case scenario, but I think we'll probably be there sooner".
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