WFH parents continue to battle over broadband
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Faye Sutton
| 13 February 2021
Three-quarters of parents have argued over the broadband as they battle to work from home while ensuring their children attend online classes.
TRuespeed WFHsurvey 13Feb2021

According to a report by UK full-fibre infrastructure provider and ISP Truespeed, 67% of parents say they need fast broadband connectivity because they work from home, but only 36% have a highly reliable home broadband connection. And 46% experience broadband problems at least once a week.

The survey of 2,000 parents, which was conducted by OnePoll, reveals that 24% have experienced video calls that shudder, freeze or even drop out entirely, while 16% have even struggled to get their broadband to co-operate when sending an email.

Meanwhile, a fifth of parents said they had faced arguments after asking their children to stop using the broadband to free up enough bandwidth for them to attend a work video call, and four in 10 families said they had more rows about internet use than about what to watch on TV.

And with the typical household juggling nine connected devices at once, clogging up the broadband was found to be the top gripe (23%). Others have rowed because someone tried to download a big file, making the internet slow for everyone else (13%).

Evan Wienburg, CEO of Truespeed, said: “Struggling with sub-standard broadband is a big challenge for parents up and down the country juggling working from home with their kids’ online schooling. Everyone wants a piece of the broadband action so it’s hardly surprising that unreliable connectivity and bandwidth issues are causing family rows. Our survey underlines the urgent need for WFH parents to be able to choose an ultra-fast, ultra-reliable full fibre broadband service that can handle whatever their family throws at it.”

Truespeed says it is focused on connecting communities in cities, towns and rural areas in the South West that have been overlooked by national broadband providers. Earlier this month it started rolling out its fibre broadband network in Bath and neighbouring areas in the South West including the towns of Keynsham, Saltford and South Widcombe.

As well as concentrating on rural communities across the South West, Truespeed also offers primary schools and community hubs passed by its network free ultrafast broadband for life. To date, over 100 schools and community hubs have signed up.