1 in 8 UK Workplaces Lose Internet Connectivity Once a Day or More

A new survey of 1,000 UK office workers, which was conducted by business broadband ISP Glide, has claimed that 5% of businesses suffer multiple internet outages each day and 12% lose connectivity at least once a day. Respondents added that the average time to reconnect was 107 minutes.

The study also found that Glasgow seems to be the worst for office connection stability, with 26% of workers claiming their business internet goes down at least once a day. This was followed by Bristol (20%), Southampton (18%), London (14%) and Cardiff (13%).

Perhaps unsurprisingly those who work in the IT sector were the least likely to experience a loss of connectivity, with 40% even saying their business has never lost its connection (compared with 30% overall). Some 38% of those in HR and recruitment said the same and so did 36% of self-employed workers.

Meanwhile legal workers (solicitors) were the most likely to have crappy internet connections and 14% claim to have lost access multiple times a day.

Ben King, CTO of Glide, said:

“It’s shocking to see just how many hours a year workers are losing due to the internet being down. With millions of offices across the country dependent on an internet connection to run, it really is worth investing in a fast, reliable and assured network to support your business needs.”

Glide obviously has a vested interest here (take with pinch of salt) and it’s worth noting that one underlying problem may be the lack of redundancy in such businesses (i.e. ensuring that a backup connection exists, ideally via a separate network from your primary link). Simply installing an ultrafast fibre line doesn’t make your business immune to outages.

Even the smallest businesses can have redundant connections, such as through something as simple as a 4G mobile broadband link (coverage allowing). One other possible caveat in a survey like this is that office workers might easily confuse local network problems with a fault on the internet connection itself.