Half of public has experienced broadband outages

A survey suggests that, for almost half of people, working or studying from home isn’t an option. However, one in five said they expect to work from home five days a week.

Half of people have experienced outages to their home broadband in the last 12 months, with people based in the west and north of the country most likely to have faced internet problems.

Two in five people said they’ve had broadband outages lasting as long as six hours up to three times in the last year, while just under a quarter said it had an impact on their ability to work from home.

When asked to rate the reliability of video streaming services used, RTÉ Player rated the poorest with Netflix, Disney Plus and Youtube scoring the highest.

These were among the findings of a new survey of 1,826 adults for communications regulator Comreg on the impacts that network outages have on the public.

Unsurprisingly, home workers are most exposed to the impact of internet outages.

The survey suggests that, for almost half of people, working or studying from home isn’t an option. However, one in five said they expect to work from home five days a week.

This rises to 31% for people aged 18-34 and a quarter of those from a middle-class background.

Comreg said: “The impacts on homeworking are not only due to the direct impact of the actual disruption but also from avoiding working at home in the first place due to the perceived risk of connections being unreliable (I.e. they would have worked from home had their connection been more reliable).” 

A study compiled for Comreg by DotEcon and Analysys Mason said that around 27% of people reported “material adverse consequences” from internet outages.

It also said there is widespread use of mobile phones as a backup internet connection, with two-thirds saying they used their phones when needed but just one-third saying this provides a similar experience to their broadband connections.

Two in five people said they would consider paying more for a service without outages, but this increased to half of people under the age of 25.

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The report said: “There is substantial unmet demand for more reliable broadband connections, but consumers value reliability very unevenly. On average, survey respondents were willing to pay an additional €6.50/month (on top of their current bill) to avoid outages, increasing to €11.30/month for homeworkers.” 

The survey suggests a higher incidence of outages reported by people among working-class cohorts, though “this is only notable in outages over 24 hours in duration with 73% never experiencing this compared to 80% of middle-class cohorts,” it said.

It also provided a breakdown comparing some of the providers.

It said: “When focusing on the various durations of outages, there are some key trends, with those with cable connections reporting less outages, or less frequency in outages. Those with Virgin are also less likely to report outages, with for example two in three Virgin customers noting no outages lasting six hours.

“In terms of outages lasting up to 24 hours, Eir performs worst here with over one in three reporting outages such as this on 1-3 occasions in the last 12 months.” 

Comreg concluded that it would monitor these matters, but that developments such as the National Broadband Plan would improve the situation across the country.