1
Tytherington Parish Council
Broadband Survey
Analysis of Results
May 2016
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Who Responded………..
 100 respondents in total – 99 resident households and one business –
around a 50% response rate
 Of the resident housesholds, 59 involve working from home, of which 19 run
their own businesses. There 15 are students, though 67% of residents study or
carry out research.
 The vast majority (86%) are heavy broadband users – either on the internet
continuously or many times each day
 The residents use broadband for the full range of daily living activities,
including personal emails, online shopping, leisure browsing of the internet,
streaming “on demand” tv services etc.
 Business users use email, either direct from a server or via VPN. They also
utilise and trade via the internet.
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The key messages in summary…….
 The vast majority – 80% - of users are dissatisfied, or very dissatisfied, with the broadband
performance they receive, with 76% saying that this restricts their business, study and daily
living
 Nobody achieved the Governments proposed Universal Service Obligation of 10mbps
download speed by 2020, let alone the 20mbps speed that is the minimum defined as
“superfast.” In fact, 92% get less than 5mbps.
 Upload speed performance is even worse with 94% achieving less than 1mbps.
 Added to this, only 10% of respondents regard their service reliability as “Good.” Nearly
half perceive it as “Poor” or “Very Poor.”
 This has a significant and negative impact on people’s lives - both residents and
businesses. For example, 74% of households experience limitations on live streaming, 66%
with online shopping and 64% with leisure browsing. 88% of those working at home
experience difficulties, as do 65% of those studying. All of those running home based
businesses report restrictions on their ability to operate efficiently.
 As a result, around a quarter of residents say that failure to improve broadband could
impact their decision to remain in Tytherington and 60% of home businesses report that the
future location of their business will be influenced unless broadband provision is improved.
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The key messages in detail……
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The vast majority of users are dissatisfied with the restriction
poor broadband places on their daily lives and business
100
100
90
90
80
80
70
70
60
60
50
50
40
40
30
30
20
20
10
10
0
Satisfied
Average
Dissatisfied
Very
Dissatisfied
%Respondents
Q: How satisfied are you with your current
broadband performance?
0
Yes
No
Not Sure
Not Applic.
%Respondents
Q: Is the performance of your business/work/study
restricted by existing broadband provision?
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Because download speeds are poor……..
? Govt. USO 2020
100
90
80
70
60
50
%Respondents
40
30
20
10
0
<2
•
•
•
•
•
2<4
4<6
6<8
8<10
10<12
Min. “Superfast” Speed
12<14
14<16
16<18
18<20
20<22
Despite being covered by the commercial roll out of fibre, download speeds are well
below the proposed Universal Service Obligation 2020, and not close to being
considered “superfast.”
These speeds are sufficient, for example, to receive IPlayer, but not enough for Netflix in
HD.
As a result, 74% of residents feel restricted in their ability to stream TV, and 66% simply
carrying out online banking/shopping and leisure browsing of the internet.
And 65% are limited in their ability to study at home – including students and children at
school
At these speeds, VPN access can be challenging – 88% of those working at home are
restricted or lose effectiveness
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And Upload speeds are even worse………
100
90
80
70
60
% Respondees
50
40
30
20
10
0
<1
1<2
2<3
3<4
4<5
5<6
6<7
7<8
8<9
9<10
>10
At these upload speeds, respondents are restricted in their ability to:
•
•
•
Use cloudbased storage – 65% of respondents are limited by this
Upload files via VPN – 88% say working at home is hampered by broadband speeds
Upload study documents and home learning – 65% report that speed limitations
restrict study
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Added to this, reliability of service is perceived as
average to poor
50
45
40
35
30
%Respondents
25
20
15
10
5
0
Good
Average
Poor
Q: How reliable is your internet service?
At peak times, speeds deteriorate for many users
Very Poor
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Such that residents and businesses/homeworkers
are restricted in their daily activities……..
Residents
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
Businesses & Homeworkers
100
80
60
40
20
0
Work at
Home
Home
Business
Cloud
Storage
%Business & Homeworker
%Residents
Q: What would you like to use the internet for, but are currently
restricted by available speed and/or bandwidth?
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Which is influencing some people’s, and some business
views about remaining in the village longer term…….
Business
Residents
35
60
30
50
25
40
20
30
15
20
10
5
10
0
0
Very Likely
Yes
No
No Answer
% Residents
Q: Would your broadband performance affect
your decision to remain a resident in
Tytherington?
Probably
Probably
Not
Not at all
% Business
Q: Will the future location o your business be
influenced by the provision of broadband
if it is not improved?
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In summary, the poor broadband service is seriously
impacting Tytherington’s desirability as a place to live and
work:
 Shopping, banking, streaming entertainment, leisure browsing and all the other
aspects of daily living are either frustrating and time consuming, or simply not
possible at all
 Children’s education is hampered
 Working at home is either inefficient or impossible
 Running a business is increasingly difficult
 Paying a premium for fibre – the same as others – but receiving a much worse
service
The world is increasingly being designed around superfast broadband.
Without it, Tytherington is being left behind – unfairly compared to
other, indeed, smaller communities locally, that have been connected
for “free”
“There should be no reason why a village of some 800 people is not
included when other smaller places have it locally” (Local Resident)
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Daily living in Tytherington - what people are saying……
IIt takes a long time
to do even the
simplest of things –
even emails. Parts of
Africa are better
INow I am disabled,
I use my computer
much more, but it is
so frustrating…I
would not buy here
now but am stuck
IOur connection is
so bad that we
have to use 4G –
much more
expensive & still slow
IIPlayer is variable,
Netflix is not possible
ILive streaming is not
always possible –
even internet
access is restricted
at times
“We are being left behind through no choice of our own”
We are deterred
from using the
internet for
photobooks, cloud
storage, watching
tv & films
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Working at & running a business from home in Tytherington what people are saying……
IWhen planning to
work from home, I
have to consider if it
is school holidays as
the speeds drops off
a cliff
IIt is so poor that I
cannot work from
home
II run a consultancy
with blue chip
clients & the
majority of time, I
cannot access
realtime services
II run a business with
foreign links. I have
to go to Thornbury
to skype/facetime
my contacts in New
Zealand
IWe are employees
of a large
organisation that
require staff to work
at home, but we
are restricted…..
IOur business
cannot be
conducted without
online access –
HMRC, banking,
BCMS etc.
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Learning and studying in Tytherington - what people are
saying……
ISometimes my
teenagers cannot
access GCSE and A
Level work
IWe have 2 children
aged 10 even
today, home
learning can be
difficult on the net –
what about GCSE’s!
IMy son is studying
for his GCSE, but a
result of poor
broadband, he has
to stay on at school
to use the internet
IIt seriously impedes
our children in their
education
15
Paying too much for what we get – what people are
saying…..
IWe are charged for
a high speed
service that they do
not provide
Despite paying a
premium for fibre, as
a family & business,
our speeds are way
too low
Even though we are
close to the
secondary cabinet,
we still get poor
speeds despite
paying for BT fibre
IMany work
colleagues have
fibre to the house at
200mbps for the
same cost as my
current BT contract
IWe pay the same
for our poor service
as those with a
much better service
IDespite paying for
fibre, we get very
poor speeds – less
than 4mbps
“It will affect our house prices, I know of people who have said
they won’t move here because of the poor broadband”