Cable.co.uk, one of the UK’s leading broadband comparison groups, has warned that the expected increase in network connected devices on Christmas day could lead to a network standstill over the holidays.
Cable.co.uk asked 2000 customers and discovered that a surge of new internet-enabled devices going online at the same time could put a lot of stress on domestic broadband connections.
They found that on December 25 2015, 54% of households will permanently add at least one internet-enabled device to their home network. Despite this prediction, only 43% of consumers have switched to a more suitable and larger broadband package in the past 12 months.
Sharing at Christmas can be a bad idea
A family’s broadband connection will likely be put under even more stress when they decide to have guests round – who will in turn bring their smart phones and recently received internet enabled devices with them and connect to the wifi.
Media sharing with friends, downloading add-ons for computer games and live video streaming are higher at Christmas than at any other day of the year – with users streaming nearly 3 hours of content a day (up 8% last year).
Dan Howdle, a broadband expert, has advised users to focus less on fairy lights interfering with wifi, and focus more on speed, device capacity and usage limits.