A growing pick-and-pack business is calling for fibre optic broadband to be hooked up to an industrial estate as it says slow speeds are holding it back.

Interpac, which stores and despatches stock for companies selling online, said poor connectivity on the Hellesdon Park Industrial Estate slows its links with clients around the world.

After complaining to service provider BT, owner Matthew Jude said he was told the site could only receive 4MBps but when he tested the speed he was receiving it came in at 2.25MBps. He said he had been trying to make headway for more than a year.

'It is disrupting our business. We can't work without internet,' he said.

'For the fulfilment side of the business we have an integrated system which means we have to be online all the time.'

Broadband is needed for Interpac to pick up information from websites such as eBay or Amazon and to then fill those orders on behalf of their customers.

He said: 'We have customers all over the world and we need to be quick. We want to grow as a business and employ people but it is tough without high speed broadband.'

North Norwich MP Chloe Smith visited the business yesterday, and said: 'Having poor broadband is holding back businesses that want to do more, employ people and grow.'

BT said the issue was down to a fault which was being looked at.

A BT spokesman said: 'We are sorry for the problems that have been experienced. There has been a fault which has caused speeds to drop. Engineers have been working as quickly as possible on this and we now believe that we have stabilised the broadband.'

The telecoms giant has teamed up with Norfolk County Council on the Better Broadband for Norfolk (BBfN) scheme which said it had brought high speed broadband to around half the estate with another broadband cabinet scheduled to be installed in two years' time.

Has your businesses growth been slowed by poor broadband speeds? Write to doug.faulkner@archant.co.uk