Plenty of folks might like to work from home, but millions of employees around the UK are being prevented from doing so by poor performance from their fixed or mobile broadband connection.
In fact, according to an online survey of over 2,000 adults (18+) from uSwitch, 25% of UK workers have had issues with either their fixed or mobile broadband services when working from home in the last year, and no less than four million folks have been prevented from remote working as a result.
And almost half of those (46%) who’ve suffered from the aforementioned serious connection issues have had problems which are so severe they said that they believed they’re no longer able to work from home while the situation continues.
- Work from home safely and productively with a remote access VPN
Money wasted
And a great deal of money has been spent in the last year forking out for alternatives to get a consistent internet connection for remote working purposes. Indeed, no less than £190 million has been spent in efforts which range from buying broadband signal boosters to actually switching ISPs, or heading out to a local café to use the Wi-Fi hotspot there.
Ewan Taylor-Gibson, broadband expert at uSwitch.com, advised: “Before committing to remote working, employees should make sure their home office is ready for use. As a first point of call, it’s worth checking to see if you can get a more reliable connection such as fibre, which will give you faster speeds and reduce the risk of services cutting out.
“Next, fine-tune your work environment by making sure your router is away from devices that could interfere with the signal – like your TV – and be aware that working during peak traffic times, such as the evening, could have a notable impact on your internet speeds.”
- These are the best broadband deals and business broadband offers