Reliability and Compensation Report: The Impact of Poor Business Fibre Connectivity
July 1, 2024
|
4
min read
Highlights
The 2024 Reliability and Compensation report puts a value on just how much internet outages cost businesses. Last year, economic productivity in London lost £5.7 billion because of connectivity outages. ISPs should compete on the quality of their networks, to drive performance improvements and better serve the business community.
In today's digital world, unreliable business internet connections are costing businesses and damaging the UK economy.
Our recent Reliability and Compensation Report, authored by Assembly Research, using data from the ONS and a survey conducted by YouGov, revealed that: 51% of UK fixed business connectivity customers experienced an outage in the past year, but 61% of those affected never received compensation.
Your business internet service provider (ISP) should make promises (in the form of a robust and transparent Service Level Agreement (SLA)) about keeping your business connected.
If they won’t make contractual promises, that says a lot about their confidence in their network. Automatic compensation would hold them to account.
The reality of internet outages
Digital connectivity is a cornerstone of business operations, and the economic repercussions of poor connectivity are very real.
19% of businesses with a business internet contract experienced more than three outages in the past year.
Overall, the UK economy lost £17.6 billion due to fixed business connectivity outages in the past year, with London businesses alone losing £5.7 billion.
Even brief outages that might have been tolerated ten years ago significantly impact productivity today. We’re more reliant on connectivity than ever before. And that’s only going to increase.
Tim Creswick, Founder and CEO of Vorboss, says:
“ISPs should all be incentivised to compete on quality – that would force an uplift in network performance, and in turn drive a much-needed economic boost.”
The problem with getting money back
Even though connectivity outages are common, not many businesses receive compensation.
Only 35% of UK fixed business connectivity customers who experienced an outage in the last twelve months received compensation.
Based on a sample of current tariffs, a meagre average of only £7.53 in direct financial compensation would have been available for the average outage time.
Businesses depend on the internet for everything from internal functions, like cloud-based services, to external interactions with suppliers and customers, so it’s critical they can trust their internet to work.
Especially as our demands on internet infrastructure increase.
The power of the SLA
Many businesses are not aware of the promises—if any —that their internet provider has made, or what they should receive if there’s a problem.
23% of UK fixed business connectivity customers were unsure whether their contracts included SLAs, and 21% didn’t know if their contract specified compensation arrangements if certain service quality levels weren’t met.
This makes it hard for them to ask for money back when things go wrong and suggests that there's a significant change is needed in how internet providers talk to their business customers.
When asked why they hadn’t asked for compensation, 44% of UK fixed business connectivity customers believed the claim wasn't worth the time and effort.
34% didn't bother to ask because they didn’t expect to receive any compensation.
Customers should be the priority, and getting automatic compensation when things go wrong is one way to make sure they are treated fairly.
While being compensated for internet outages doesn't fully make up for lost productivity, clear promises and automatic money back when things go wrong are essential to ensure that networks are competing on quality. And they’re essential to enabling businesses to make an informed choice about the provider that’s best for them.
For detailed statistics and insights that can guide your decision-making, read the complete Reliability and Compensation Report.
More Articles
Why wouldn’t we have a diverse workforce? Why shouldn’t inclusivity be the goal of the telecoms industry?
We’ve published our Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Strategy, and a core part of that is our commitment to reach gender parity across the company by 2028.
A major step towards achieving this breakthrough for the telecoms industry will be our commitment to reach 50/50 representation within technical and engineering positions by 2027. We’re currently at more than a third representation of women in those roles.
That puts us ahead of others in the telecommunications industry thanks to creating an inclusive culture where everyone can thrive.
Inclusion wasn’t an afterthought for us – we aimed for an inclusive approach and a diverse workforce right from the start.
And diversity isn’t limited to gender, so our policies are focused on ensuring inclusion for all people from all walks of life – and particularly those that have long been excluded from our industry.
Diversity works. It works for us, and it’s essential if the telecom industry is going to keep working.
By Rikshita Khela, Chief People Officer.
2023 Vorboss Gender Pay Gap Report
The gender pay gap is the difference between the average earnings of women and men across a workforce at a single point in time, expressed as a percentage of men’s earnings. It is not the same as equal pay, which refers to paying women and men the same wage for the same job.
The 2023 Vorboss Gender Pay Gap report highlights our commitment to equity, inclusion, and diversity in all business areas, including policies that encourage women to join and stay in our workforce. However, we recognise that the numbers produced by the gender pay gap alone don’t reflect the level of inclusivity and representation we aspire to achieve.
Our priority is achieving gender equality as a whole, and we have committed to reach gender parity across the company by 2028.
A highlight of the year was being recognised as one of the Sunday Times Best Places to Work in the UK and Best Places to Work for Women.
You can read the full 2023 gender pay gap report here.
