Study Shows UK Home Renters Dissatisfied with their Broadband

A new survey conducted by Portland Communications, which was commissioned by CityFibre and the Quality of Life Foundation, has found that people who rent their accommodation were nearly twice as likely to describe their broadband ISP connection as only “average or unreliable” than those who own their own home.

The survey, which was conducted with a fairly small sample of 1,012 UK online adults (18+) during April 2021, warned that the issue for renters has had a “significant impact” on the nation’s ability to cope during the lockdown as homeowners found it a fifth (21%) easier than renters to perform tasks such as home working or online schooling.

The survey also noted how just 1% of respondents now say that the internet isn’t important at all to their lives, with 42% saying that the internet is now so important that their lives would be “impossible without it” (up more than a third from pre-pandemic levels).

In addition, some 69% of people – homeowners and renters – said they have experienced interruptions, such as service dropouts, in the past year. However, internet connectivity problems can also be caused by other areas than just the broadband ISP connection itself, such as poor home WiFi, problems on remote internet servers, local network congestion and errors in your home network configuration.

Meanwhile, the vast majority (87%) of respondents believe that making improvements to the speed and reliability of their broadband connection could improve their quality of life.

Greg Mesch, CEO at CityFibre, said:

“Lockdown has put pressure on every part of our lives, and the digital infrastructure supporting this country is no different. Slow and unreliable copper-based networks are no longer fit for purpose. The nation’s upgrade to fast and reliable Full Fibre connectivity can’t come soon enough.

What this research highlights is that those in rented or social accommodation are often worst affected by poor quality connectivity. Often the biggest challenge to address this is securing permissions from landlords to install new Full Fibre networks. Industry, landlords, and the Government must redouble efforts to overcome this barrier quickly to ensure that no one is left behind.”

Naturally, CityFibre are keen to promote the benefits of their new Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband network, which is currently being rolled out to 8 million premises across the UK (here). But it’s worth noting that the situation for people who rent their accommodation can be complicated and this will vary from place to place.

For example, sometimes the contract terms that come attached to a potentially better broadband package may run for longer than the lease on a rented home. Equally, in some properties you may only be able to access a shared network (often via WiFi) with the primary building owner / manager – or one where only certain networks’ are available, which can leave you at the mercy of the property owner’s decisions.

Sometimes having a new line installed may also require physical work to take place on the property, which the building owner may refuse for one reason or another. Suffice to say that it’s not always as simple as ordering the connection you want and then getting it, which perhaps helps to explain why broadband satisfaction among renters is so much lower. The same freedom to choose, when a choice is even possible, doesn’t always exist.

We should point out that work is underway to correct for some of this (here), but it’s a slow process toward implementation and won’t resolve everything.