Whilst the economic gloom threatens to drag even more traditional businesses down, It’s been easy to find areas where ‘digital’ business has actually been bucking the trend and not only surviving but thriving and outstripping results for their High Street counterparts.

With figures being banded about of 20%, 50% and even over 100% increases in online sales, it seems there are even more reasons now for taking your business online than ever before. But a new report due out today will push for even more investment in digital technology which could see the gap between online and traditional trading grow even further.

The ‘Digital Britain Report Steering Boad‘ was set up in November last year to produce a plan that will help Britain to at first understand its failings in the take up of the Internet and then address them with an aim to get more people using the web and related technology. Although it now seems ubiquitous, shockingly only 40% of British households have access to broadband, a number that the report will recommend is boosted to full availability by 2012.

The report has some heavyweight contributors and it seems they were chosen to help to push this new initiative by removing some of the objections to Internet take up that have dogged it for so long. One appointment that sticks out is Tanya Byron, the psychologist who was asked to assess the effect of violent computer games on young children.

Take up of the Internet has been hampered by many things, not least the cost (even more important given the current climate), but even by addressing this issue there still remains the problem of content. There is no doubt that the Internet is an easy place to find porn, gambling and drugs and so some households may well be put off by this.

There is also the issue of illegal downloads. Many parents will have no idea what their kid are up to and policing an alien system (let’s remember, the Internet is still relatively new – many children know much more than their parents) can be extremely difficult. In some high profile cases, it was only when the police turned up at the door did they suddenly realise where all those episodes of ‘Lost’ were coming from.

So what could all this mean for Britain? Well, the government seem absolutely committed to ensuring the country is ready for the new digital age. They say that recession is a time of rebirth and renewal and it certainly seems that this one will be no different.

With massive increases in online sales based on only a 40% take up of broadband, by increasing that to 80 or even 90% and making the Internet a safer place, the future for online business seems secure. In fact, it seems clear that those businesses that don’t embrace this new way of working will simply fall by the wayside. If you don’t act now, others will and you’ll be beaten on the new digital frontier.