What are the factors that would make you consider moving house?
Upgrading to a bigger/better property? Downgrading? Moving closer to work or family?
All are undoubtedly factors but how about broadband?
It appears it is quite important to many people.
A new survey of 1,001 people by Censuswide on behalf of Pure Telecom showed that half of those who have poor broadband access would consider relocating.
This echoes a similar study by Vodafone a year ago which indicated that businesses in rural areas are being forced to relocate due to the lack of adequate broadband access.
It is mainly rural locations this applies to.
In Dublin, where the demand for property is massive, most areas can get broadband speeds of up to 1GBps. Most rural areas would take 100th of that and be content but simply can’t get it at present.
While it is relatively easy to sell in most urban areas at present if a property is in good condition and realistically priced, those in rural areas often struggle to move given that the market is much small.
Most people, three quarters of those surveyed in fact, are happy with the speeds they are getting.
It might seem drastic to some to move over soemthing like broadband speeds but given the average person now spends six hours and 20 minutes per day or 44 hours and 23 minutes per week on their home broadband, it shows its importance to modern life.
“The internet plays a massive role in people’s lives, proven by the fact that 50pc of people with unsatisfactory access would move somewhere else if they didn’t have acceptable broadband access,” said Paul Connell, director, Pure Telecom.
“Many of the people affected by poor access live in rural Ireland. We need to help our rural communities thrive, not drive them into towns and cities because of internet problems.”
It appears this problem is set to grow while people wait for the Government’s National Broadband Plan. More than 542,000 homes and businesses are in the area affected by this and still waiting on intervention.
A tender is due to be awarded in the New Year for the contract to bring broadband to many of those suffering from a lack of proper broadband.
Will many have already moved by then though?
Let us know your thoughts.
- Have you experienced poor broadband speeds?
- Would you consider moving because of broadband?
- Has your broadband improved in the last 12 months?
Have your say below…
