UK households have an average of 4.6 devices connected to WiFi

A new report has unearthed some interesting tidbits regarding the current state of knowledge and how UK households are connecting to the Internet.

In the 2011 Connectivity Report, which was commissioned by TP-Link, a global provider of networking products, it was found that UK households have an average of 4.6 devices connected to a home WiFi network at any given time. This could be laptops, tablets, printers, games consoles, desktop computers, smartphones or even WiFi-enabled photoframes.

Despite the high level of connectivity, almost a third (32%) of UK Internet users don’t know what their broadband speed is, whilst half (51%) would like to have faster broadband.

The fact that a third of those surveyed don’t know what broadband speed they’re supposed to be receiving is perhaps indicative of the discrepancy between what internet service providers (ISPs) promise on the surface, and what is actually delivered. Back in June we reported that the UK’s Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has ruled that Virgin Media overstepped the mark in its ‘Stop the broadband con’ campaign.

The Virgin Media campaign was supported by many though. Advertising speeds preceded by ‘up to’ has been highlighted before by regulatory body Ofcom, and previous research found that only 14% of customers on broadband services advertised as ‘up to 20Mbps’ received speeds of over 12Mbps, and well over half enjoyed average speeds of 6Mbps or less. On that front, Virgin Media argued that its campaign was designed to highlight “widespread dissatisfaction among consumers about the advertising of broadband speeds.”

“The reality is that so many consumers just accept the network packages offered by their ISP and don’t understand how limiting some of the offers can be”, said Eric Wang, UK Country Manager and TP-Link. “This research serves to underline the importance of the connected home.  On average with people accessing the internet via 4 devices at any one time, having a robust home network has never been more important.”

Whilst the UK is becoming increasingly and ubiquitously connected, we recently reported that 8m Britons have never been online, though this figure is decreasing rapidly. In the three months to the end of September 2011, the number of UK adults who had never visited a website fell by almost 300,000, which is a big drop compared to the previous quarter which only saw a decrease of 12,000.

The TP-LINK Connectivity Report was commissioned in November 2011, and it surveyed 1,000 UK adults through Redshift Media Research.