Broadband communication has bypassed Sussex and would-be users believe action needs to be taken to avoid digital oblivion.
Jeremy Taylor, Crawley-based co-founder of the Internet Innovation Forum (IIF), said: "The promises we have been hearing for years about broadband access in Sussex are not being met.
"There is too much emphasis on jargon and not enough on what can be done with this new technology. We need to know why Sussex is being left behind."
The BT division, Ignite, has been upgrading telephone exchanges to handle ADSL (asymmetric digital subscriber line), which allows large volumes of data to be sent over existing copper telephone lines.
Sharma Hadrill, marketing manager for Brighton-based AVT, a provider of multi-platform corporate communications, said: "We work with a lot of London-based companies keen to come down to Brighton but if there is no new media infrastructure we are not going to be an attractive location for this sort of important investment."
BT Ignite marketing manager Peter Richards said: "The roll out of broadband has been later to market than we had hoped.
"It's not something we can turn on like a switch. We have invested £5billion into upgrading the network nationally and have taken on US consultants to help us improve the roll out."
Charles Houston, communications manager for BT Openworld, said: "At present, ADSL only works for people within 3.5 kilometres of an exchange. We have trials this summer to extend this to 5.5 kilometres, which would cover 90 per cent of UK addresses."
In the Sussex area, the main provider of cable modems which allow high-speed data access over cable networks, is NTL.
Liz Nicholson, NTL public relations manager, said: "We are committed to bringing broadband services to all our customers in the next year for the majority of our regions, including the Brighton area."
David Harrington, director-general of the Communications Management Association, said: "We are lagging behind Europe and America in terms of broadband access. We have yet to see if we can catch up in the next few years."
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