Broadband outages have risen by 73 percent in the UK over the space of 12 months according to the latest figures from Uswitch. The comparison website said 38 million Brits have experienced internet disconnections lasting three or more hours and moved to remind you that you could be entitled to compensation if you’re affected.
In May 2024, respondents to a survey were asked how often they’d lost broadband connection “for a continuous period of three hours or more in the last 12 months”. 71 percent replied that they had, with 6 percent even claiming they encountered Wi-Fi gremlins on a daily basis.
Uswitch said Yorkshire and Humberside was the UK’s worst-affected region for broadband outages, with people on average disconnected for 587 hours a year – that’s 24.5 days.
Those in the South West, East of England, and London followed close behind, all experiencing more than a week of broadband bust ups per year.
By comparison, Brits in the North West were least affected with just 93 hours (four days) offline on average every 12 months.
Max Beckett, broadband expert at Uswitch, indicated that many UK broadband customers might be unaware they are entitled to monetary compensation if their internet goes offline.
“If your connection has completely stopped working and isn’t fixed after two working days, you could be entitled to compensation of £9.76 per day,” he said.
“With the majority of the UK’s big broadband providers signed up to Ofcom’s auto-compensation scheme, we would hope to see customers quickly reimbursed if they suffer outages.”
BT, EE, Plusnet, Sky Broadband, TalkTalk, Virgin Media, Vodafone and other providers are all signed up to Ofcom’s scheme. All you have to do is report a fault to your provider and if it is not fixed after two full working days, you should automatically be paid £9.76 per day until it is.
Just be aware that you must report the fault or you might not be eligible for the compensation payments.
You can read more about Ofcom’s automatic compensation scheme here.
Below is the list of the UK regions worst affected, ranked by the average offline downtime in hours per year:
- Yorkshire and Humberside – 587
- South West – 217
- East of England – 197
- London – 180
- East Midlands – 169
- Scotland – 162
- West Midlands – 143
- South East – 111
- North West – 93
You can be compensated in the event of a provider-side outage, but your internet service provider (ISP) is not at liberty to compensate you due to a power cut or your own equipment, such as your router, not working.
“There are a variety of possible reasons for broadband outages – but consumers shouldn’t suffer due to provider issues. If you’re not satisfied with how your internet supplier handles outages, it may be time to vote with your feet and look for other, more reliable options elsewhere,” Beckett said.
