DrayTek Survey Reveals What UK Businesses Think of their ISP

Networking kit manufacturer DrayTek, which is a familiar name in the broadband connectivity world, has published a new ‘ISP Performance and Perceptions Survey 2024’, which reveals what business users really think about their Internet Service Provider and what they view as their most crucial connectivity needs.

The survey – download here – appears to be based on responses from 476 members of the “DrayTek community” (in this case, business users). But it’s worth noting that regular consumers also use some of DrayTek’s more domestic grade devices, such as some of their broadband routers.

The summary of this report notes that more than 50% of the businesses surveyed had been with their current ISP for over 5-years. This could imply a significant level of loyalty – or perhaps, as additional data further in the report suggests, complacency. But larger businesses with more than 50 sites do tend to switch ISP more regularly, with 30% being with their provider for less than 2-years (compared to an average of 24%).

In terms of how businesses actually use their broadband connections, some 70% of businesses currently rely on their internet connection to access cloud applications, with 52% using broadband to access phone systems (VoIP), 47% for VPN, and 42% for video calls, 27% for large data transfers, 26% for internet browsing and 22% for back-office connectivity. In addition, 68% also need broadband for their “phone lines” (voice service).

Additional Survey Highlights

➤ An astonishing 44% of respondents do not have a backup or failover system in place.

➤ When asked how likely they were to recommend their current ISP, businesses gave an average score of 7.74 out of 10.

➤ 56% of respondents also said they are open to switching ISP (this includes 38% who said they were happy, but open to change, while 11% were unhappy [expecting to review options] and 7% were actively looking).

➤ The top factors that influence a decision when changing provider are price (58%), customer service (52%), availability of higher speeds (47%), consistency of speed (40%), guaranteed uptime (34%), performance Service Level Agreements (33%), short contract length (9%) and security (9%).

➤ The survey then asked what were the main reasons why users changed their previous ISP, which saw the availability of higher speeds (26%) top the charts, followed by price (19%), customer service (17%), performance SLAs (5%), consistency of speed (5%), guaranteed uptime (5%) and enhanced offerings (4%).