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Mobile and internet provider giffgaff has today published the results of a new 3Gem survey of 2,000 UK adults (conducted during Sept 2025), which claims to have found that 53% of respondents face “broadband disruptions” at least twice a month and the average Brit spends nearly 50 hours a year troubleshooting poor internet connectivity.
The survey, which later confusingly indicated that the 53% figure referred to people who “suffer regular problems with their WiFi“, identifies that the top frustrations experienced by respondents include frozen work calls (17%), lost shopping orders (13%) and films or TV shows cutting out mid-stream (12%).
Meanwhile, people are said to be “going to extraordinary lengths to stay connected“, with 36% having left the house to find a signal – heading to cafés, friends’ homes, libraries and even supermarket car parks – and 6% even admitted parking outside an ex’s house to use their WiFi (this is technically illegal if done without permission).
At home, coping tactics mean that 38% of respondents said they wander round the house trying to get a better signal, while 17% shout at the router (always super effective), and 8% drain their phone data (mobile broadband) by Tethering it to other devices. Finally, 31% say it’s too much hassle to switch provider (it’s actually now very easy), while a quarter think another provider wouldn’t be any better.
It’s almost like giffgaff have got a new home broadband service to promote, which of course they do (here).
Ash Schofield, CEO of giffgaff, said:
“Our research shows just how frustrating and disruptive unreliable broadband has become in people’s everyday lives. It’s clear that many feel stuck with a service they’re not happy with.
That’s why we invited over 500 people to help shape our offering, ensuring we deliver a service that is built around what people actually want. The launch of giffgaff’s full fibre broadband provides a flexible and reliable option with no fuss and no compromise.
Ditching bad broadband and switching to giffgaff could be the answer to a lot of people’s frustrations and is really simple to do.”
Leaving aside the obvious vested interest above, it’s worth caveating that this survey doesn’t make much distinction between problems caused by local network connectivity (e.g. bad configuration, variable WiFi between rooms etc.) and the physical broadband connection from an ISP. Similarly, some of the issues complained about (e.g. lost shopping orders), could just as easily be the fault of a remote internet website or service.
We should point out that not every person has the necessary skills to correctly identity and diagnose the cause of internet or network connection issues. As usual, opinion surveys like this should always be taken with a pinch of salt, especially given the relatively small sample size involved.