The results from 527 respondents (polled between Mid-September and October 2011) to our latest monthly survey has revealed that one third (32.8%) have, at some point in time, suffered a loss of internet connectivity due to bad weather (snow, thunderstorms etc.), although 21.8% claimed that such problems were "Very Rare" (i.e. once a year) and most (32.4%) outages were fixed within a matter of hours but some lasted for days or even weeks.

Has your broadband ever been cut-off due to bad weather?
No - 67.1%
Yes - 32.8%

How common are such faults (per year)?
Never had a problem - 44%
Very Rare (once a year) - 21.8%
Common (more than 3 times) - 19.3%
Uncommon (2 or 3 times) - 14.8%

On average, how fast does your ISP fix connectivity problems?
Fast-ish (Hours) - 32.4%
Never had a problem - 27.5%
Slow (Days) - 21.2%
Very Slow (Weeks) - 10.2%
Very Fast (Minutes) - 8.5%

Home broadband services rely upon complicated networks that can, from time to time, fail due to bad weather or any number of other reasons. At the same time people do have a right to expect that any major outages are resolve quickly, rather than days or even weeks; the latter is more common than we ever expected.

Sadly many outages are often unavoidable and consumers should report related problems to their ISP as soon as possible, otherwise the issue may go unnoticed. We also recommend that people do all they can to check that their own kit isn't at fault (check cables, connections, reboot your router / computer etc.). A lot of problems are not caused by your ISP.

Meanwhile this month's new survey asks whether or not you would be interested in taking a television (TV) service via your broadband ISP connection (IPTV)? Vote Here.