UK ISP Hyperoptic Says Poor Broadband Hampers Home Workers

Hyperoptic, which is deploying a 1Gbps capable Fibre-to-the-Building (FTTB/P) network around parts of 12 UK cities, has surveyed 3,000 British people to conclude that 67% work from home at least once a month and 93% work longer hours when at home. But 72% also claim to feel more productive in the office, with poor home broadband taking the blame.

Apparently 90% of respondents admitted that their home broadband is slower than the office connection, which Hyperoptic said can have a “negative impact on productivity, due to dropped video calls, intermittent VPN access and time wasted spent uploading and downloading files.”

Hyperoptic claims this “broadband bugbear” is so pronounced that the respondents to their survey claimed they would choose to work an extra day per week at home, provided their broadband was fit for task. We assume that would be in substitute of a day at work, as opposed to an addition.

Steve Holford, VP of Hyperoptic’s Product Marketing, said:

“We see fast, reliable home broadband as vital for effective homeworking. As businesses move to data-driven cloud-based models, remote and homeworking becomes an option for an increasing amount of staff – giving them a better work/ life balance, without necessarily impacting overall business efficiency.

With Brits choosing to work away from the office in their droves, it’s imperative that they have the tools to be effective. Poor home broadband means wasted time – slower responses lags in resolving customer issues and disrupted remote meetings. As we look to the future, home broadband will no doubt start to become an issue for recruitment and HR professionals alike.”

The Government are of course working with BT and others to ensure that 95% of UK premises have access to “superfast broadband” speeds of 24Mbps+ by 2017, although Hyperoptic would no doubt prefer it if we were all connecting to their own ultrafast 1Gbps fibre optic lines instead. But first they need to get the small matter of coverage sorted.