As with many other nations, more than half of office workers in the U.K. will continue to work from home despite lockdown restrictions set to ease, a survey has found. However, is Britain’s broadband ready for the remote-working revolution? The answer is a general ‘no’, for most situations.
The findings relating to the quality and reliability of broadband provision come from the ‘Bandwidth Britain Report‘, which has been compiled by Uswitch. Within the report, analysts have crunched the numbers to reveal the top Internet issues experienced by workers while working from home (as well as the apps that have been causing them the most problems).
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The survey reveals that broadband speed is the biggest issue affecting remote workers, with 22,000 monthly searches. This is three times more than the query “Improve Latency” (which recorded 6,600 searches). Many employees pay for their own broadband connections.
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The U.K.’s 5 most-searched broadband issues are, expressed as web searches per month:
1. Broadband Speed 22,000 searches per month
2. Improve Latency 6,600 searches
3. Line Fault 2,400 searches
4. Slow Internet 1,600 searches
5. Upload speed 1,600 searches
In addition there are a number of apps that result in a slower connection, which frustrates many remote workers. Often these apps are, ironically, intended to boost productivity (whereas, in fact, the opposite occurs). The results of the survey indicate that greater attention needs to be paid by broadband providers to service quality if adequate support is to be provided for the new working ‘normal’.
