ISP Survey Claims 42% of UK Households Face Issues with Slow Internet

A new survey of 2,000 UK consumers, which was conducted by broadband ISP Zen Internet, has claimed that the top technical difficulties experienced at home were slow internet connections (42%), devices disconnecting from WiFi (25%), internet outages (23%), trouble setting up new devices (22%) and computer viruses (13%).

According to Zen we’ve become a nation of IT managers, with British households said to be losing an average of 1 hour a week to “technical issues” like those above (estimated to be equivalent to £1,062 a year of the average IT Manager’s salary). Meanwhile 36% of respondents said they were frustrated at people expecting them to have all the answers, while 27% are most frustrated with the time it takes to fix issues and 22% were irritated at how often the same problems arise.

More worrying perhaps is the claim that 20% of those surveyed reported that IT problems had caused arguments with family members and in the case of 12 people these arguments have even led to divorce. We’d take that with a pinch of salt because generally speaking it normally takes more than IT problems to cause a divorce.

Sadly almost one in four (23%) felt that the tech problems in their home were “beyond their control” and 42% admitted that they often turn to the well-known adage of switching the problematic device or service off and on again, whilst 31% would rather trawl online forums for advice.

Common Problems Caused by Connectivity Issues

* Almost a third (31%) have been unable to access online banking.

* One in four (24%) say that they have missed a favourite TV show or film on a streamed service such as Netflix or BBC iPlayer.

* More than one in 10 (15%) complain that they have lost crucial documents for work.

* One in 10 (11%) say that they have ordered the same product twice.

The survey also found that 17% of people said they felt “trapped” by their current ISP and, of those who feel their current broadband service is not fit for purpose (12%), some 49% say it fails to deliver the speed they expect.

Zen has a vested interest in selling themselves as the higher quality alternative, although even they won’t be able to resolve all of the above issues. As Richard Tang, Founder and Chairman of Zen, said: “Access to a fast and reliable internet service has become a pivotal part of everyday life. However, UK consumers are often let down with slow speeds and poor reliability.“