Areas in UK with the worst broadband outages revealed

According to new research, 21 million people have suffered broadband outages of three hours or more over the last year.

The number has almost doubled compared with what was reported in Uswitch's previous annual study into Britain's internet services.

People, quite rightly, have become increasingly aggrieved by the increase in disconnections, which have overtaken roadworks and public transport delays as one of our biggest daily frustrations.

Canada leads the world in working from home. I suspect this data is heavily skewed by our government employees.

There is logic to a LITTLE bit of home based work - office jobs can be done - but you can’t advance your career or company without working in a “team environment”.… pic.twitter.com/m2vNobgv90

— * W. Brett Wilson * (@WBrettWilson) September 5, 2023

Uswitch's report found 15% of people have been prevented from working due to disconnections, and 25% have been left without internet for almost a full week or more.

The top issues were supplier outages, router problems, and maintenance to external cables.

Uswitch said the number of people affected by outages had risen from about 12 million the previous year to 21.7 million over the last 12 months.

People's woes were particularly pronounced outside London, with Southampton the worst-affected city.

Cities with the worst average internet downtime:

1. Southampton - 63 hours
2. Newcastle - 57 hours
3. Birmingham - 47 hours
4. Liverpool - 44 hours
5. Nottingham - 33 hours

@TalkTalk Broadband down since yesterday afternoon, helpful person on the chat yesterday but confused by messages on Track My Fault as shown below. What is happening? pic.twitter.com/irfGu1l4yk

— Andrew Dight 🇺🇦 (@AngryDigit) September 7, 2023

In contrast, London's average broadband outage was less than 14 hours.

Ernest Doku, a telecoms expert at Uswitch, told Sky News: "This is not acceptable in a cost of living crisis, especially considering the ongoing reliance on home internet for many UK workers.

"It's also concerning that there seems to be a significant disparity in experience between customers in London and those around the country, who have to settle for less.

"The good news is that there is a lot of competition in the broadband market, including smaller, disruptive providers offering faster speeds at competitive prices."

The damning findings back up recent research by consumer watchdog Which? - it found more than half of broadband customers continued to face difficulties despite providers hiking prices.