Lockdown highlights UK broadband problems
While many people are happily working from home during the pandemic, for others a switch to remote working has thrown the deficiencies of their home internet connections into perspective.
UK comparison site Uswitch has found that people have been performing 44,000 searches per month in the hope of fixing their broadband issues. The top 10 searches are all related to technical issues and two thirds (62 percent) of all searches are related to speed.
The report finds the top 10 searches for broadband issues in the UK are:
- Broadband Speed -- 22,000 searches per month
- Improve Latency -- 6,600 searches
- Line Fault -- London -- 2,400 searches
- Slow Internet -- 1,600 searches
- Upload speed -- 1,600 searches
- Phone Line Test -- 590 searches
- Replace Router -- 390 searches
- Switch Broadband Provider -- 320 searches
- Quiet Line Test -- 210 searches
- Cancel Broadband -- 140 searches
A separate study by YouGov finds that 35 percent of Brits say their internet performance has got worse during lockdown.
Nick Baker, broadband expert at Uswitch offers some practical advice for getting the best out of your broadband connection:
The COVID-19 lockdown has made the internet even more central to our lives than it ever was before. We're relying on it for our entertainment, our work and even for our health and wellbeing.
Your broadband connection shares bandwidth across all devices in your household, so where possible turn off unused devices if you're doing something important online. Tablets and smartphones often work in the background, so try switching off Wi-Fi when they are not in use.
If you need to download a large file or update your devices, schedule this for outside of peak hours, such as the middle of the night or at lunchtime to ease congestion.
Turn off HD streaming if you can. With Netflix, for example, you can login and change the playback settings to reduce the amount of bandwidth used.
You can find out more, along with a map of the most common issues in particular areas and a list of the most bandwidth hungry streaming services on the Uswitch site.
Image credit: AntonieGuillemF/depositphotos.com