Half million Scots are paying £1m a week too much for broadband because they fear change

The research based on a poll carried out by Opinium in December, found that one in three Scots households are worried that switching will leave them without broadband for a period of time.

The research was carried out by comparison service Uswitch.com which is now calling on the telecoms regulator Ofcom to use its review of the switching process to ensure it is comprehensively co-ordinated by providers to provide a "seamless experience".

READ MORE: Rural areas could be ‘stuck with slow broadband for years due to DCMS failings’

A study a year ago revealed that nearly half of the constituencies in Scotland have poor mobile phone signals and broadband connection due to a substandard technology network.

But last year, BT subsidiary Openreach, now outlined £12 billion plans to make ultra-reliable and gigabit-capable full-fibre broadband available to hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses in 60 small and rural towns and villages across Scotland.

Openreach has said it would create 2,500 engineering jobs next year across the UK, including at least 275 in Scotland, as it continues to build ultrafast broadband connections across the country.

READ MORE: Scots broadband users face rising bills as BT rolls out fibre in rural areas

Richard Neudegg, head of regulation at Uswitch.com, says: “It’s deeply disappointing that people are missing out on big savings and faster broadband speeds because they don’t have confidence in the switching process.

“Lots of people have been put off getting a better deal by the fear that they will be left without a broadband connection, but in most cases these concerns are unfounded. The majority of switchers see no, or very little interruption to their service.

“However, there’s still a lot of work to be done to make sure the switching process is quick and reliable, especially between different broadband networks. Making network switching as simple as possible will not only help increase customer confidence but will also be crucial in ensuring consumers actually benefit from the Government's goals of UK-wide gigabit broadband rollout.

“Ofcom must make sure that switching is easy and reliable for all customers, irrespective of which provider they choose, and is particularly important now that our reliance on broadband is greater than ever. Ensuring the process is consistent and easy in all circumstances will help boost the consumer confidence in taking better services.”

The research found that across the UK a fifth of consumers have never changed their broadband provider and one in ten people don’t know when they last switched their contract, despite the fact that customers whose deals have expired pay an average of £90 over the odds each year.

Just over a third of households (36%) switching between providers on the same network lost their connection for any period of time.

READ MORE: UK broadband usage more than doubles in 2020, Openreach says

However, more than half of consumers (51%) changing broadband networks, such as moving between Openreach, Virgin Media, Gigaclear or Hyperoptic, suffered a loss of internet during the switch, making them 42% more likely to lose connection."

And the survey also found that almost half of consumers (49%) who had switched in the last 18 months found the process easier than they had expected, compared to only one in ten (10%) who found it harder.

According to Ofcom's latest Connection Nation report broadband speeds speeds of up to 1Gbps are now available to one in four homes across the UK.

In Scotland, 42% have access.

The UK government has promised everyone access to broadband speeds of up to 1Gbps by 2025 - but that target has been cut to 85% of homes.

According to the report in December, the average home consumed a third more data than last year, with data usage increasing by 225% over the past four years.

The coronavirus pandemic had driven this surge but also exposed the divide between people able to access fast connections and those who could not.