LONDON, December 16 /PRNewswire/ --     Despite the bombshells of bad news coming from the financial
sector and the UK's major organisations, Britain's small businesses appear to
be showing a true fighting spirit in an attempt to push back the doom and
gloom - according to the latest survey from XLN Telecom, the UK's leading
telecoms company serving the small business community.

In a poll of 536 small businesses - 87% of which employed less
than 10 - whilst 15% believed this Christmas was going to be "the worst
ever", 32% believed it would be the same as last year and a surprising 14%
thought it would be better. Likewise, when looking forward to next year, a
staggering 18% believed they could "thrive" in 2009, with a significant 32%
anticipating no change. Only 2% felt they would have to close down in the
period.

However, Messeurs Brown, Darling and Mandelson should not
reach for the champagne just yet as 69% of those polled stated they were
unhappy with the actions being taken by the Government to support small
businesses. More favourably for the Government, only 52% believed a change of
Government would make a positive difference.

Steps the small businesses surveyed said they would definitely be taking 
to battle their way through 2009 would be:

- Cutting overheads and purchases - 41%

- Cutting marketing costs - 32%

- Changing utility suppliers - 26%

Surprisingly, though, only 10% said they were "definitely"
going to be reducing headcount in response to the downturn and only 9%
reducing pricing next year. Instead, the majority felt offering promotions
would be the most effective tactic for driving revenues in 2009.

Anthony Karibian, CEO of XLN Telecom, commented:

"Small businesses are highly resilient. Much of this
resilience comes from their ability to rapidly adapt to changing
circumstances - this combined with a highly entrepreneurial drive. As a
result, whilst many were certain about what they would and wouldn't do, there
were large percentages of "maybes" on key questions relating to their plans
for 2009 - showing that if changes need to be made during the course of next
year, they will be ready to make them at that point."

The survey was conducted during the second half of November
2008. Of the 536 businesses who responded to the survey, 87% had ten or fewer
employees.

About XLN

XLN is committed to providing the lowest cost telecom services
and highest customer service levels to the UK's small business community.
Founded in 2002, XLN is now the UK's largest independent provider of telecom
services to small businesses in Britain having over 100,000 business
customers across the country. In 2007, XLN was ranked as the highest placed
telco company in the The Sunday Times Tech Track and was listed for a second
consecutive year in 2008. The company's founders are Anthony Karibian and
Christian Nellemann. In 2006 Christian Nellemann was a winner of the Ernst &
Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award for Technology and Communication.

For more information: http://www.xlntelecom.co.uk