Your Internet connection may be slower during the holiday season!
Christmas lights could be slowing down internet speeds, Ofcom has warned. It is estimated that up to 6 million homes and offices could benefit from improved internet speeds because wireless networks are often not installed properly or have interference from other electronic devices such as baby monitors and microwave ovens, and perhaps even Christmas lights.
The free Wi-FI Checker app for smartphones and tablets allows users to check the quality of their signal and suggests ways to improve it.
Ofcom also released research showing that more than a quarter of UK homes have a very fast connection of over 30MB per second. This is an increase to 7.5 million households from 6 million last year.
But the highest speed Internet is available to fewer than 2 in 5 homes in rural areas. And 8% of households, about 2.4 million, cannot get speeds above 10MB per second, a percentage that increases in rural areas to about half of homes.
This often happened because homes were far from the local telephone exchange or other provider point. According to the survey, users consider a connection to be good when it is above 10MB per second.
Finally, 4G mobile network coverage has also increased across all major networks from 44% in 2014 to 73% this year, with mobile data usage growing at a faster rate than fixed wireless networks.
