Connection issues affect 85% of broadband users, says survey

A new survey from consumer watchdog Which? of nearly 4,500 UK adults has revealed that more than 85% of broadband customers have experienced a problem with their connection in the past year, including at least one “connection issue” such as slow speeds, connection drop-outs, and router problems.

Figures from the study reveal that the top issue is still “slow downloads and uploads” (28%), which is followed by similar “very slow speeds” (26%), frequent connection drop-outs (22%) and router problems (21%).

Furthermore, around 15% said they had also lost internet connectivity for more than an hour and 8% said their connection had dropped for more than a day.

These common grievances were persistent across major broadband providers, and customers of Sky and Virgin Media were the worst hit – with four in 10 Sky customers (39%) claiming that they had frequent problems with slow downloads and uploads.

Conversely, nearly half of Plusnet’s customers said they had not experienced slow downloads or uploads in the past year.

In addition, Sky Broadband were also found to be the worst provider for “very slow speeds”, with the survey showing 37% of their customers claiming to have frequently been affected by this.

However, Zen Internet customers were least likely to suffer slow speeds, with over half - 54% - saying they had not experienced this problem at all.

Finally, Virgin Media and Sky customers were most likely to experience internet outages, with 22% of Virgin Media and 21% of Sky customers saying they had “frequently been left without their connection for more than an hour.”