Case Study
London
December 2023

London couple find themselves
in an unexpected connectivity crisis

Although living in the middle of London, the UK's best place for connectivity, Marcus Meer and his wife found that they had no access to fast and reliable broadband. They struggled with well below average connection speeds, preventing them both from performing basic online tasks and efficiently working from home. Happily, Marcus found alternative broadband specialists National Broadband and its 5G service.

Despite the Government announcing very recently that approximately 80% of the UK now has access to gigabit-capable broadband (1,000Mbps), with over 95% of the country being able to access superfast broadband (30Mbps+), Marcus in his apartment on the Isle of Dogs was having to to deal with speeds of just 20Mbps.

Other residents of the apartment block Marcus lives in all had fibre broadband connectivity supplied by the same provider. Marcus duly enquired and was told that they'd also be able to be his broadband provider, so he reasonably assumed this meant that he'd receive the same service as his neighbours. Sadly, due to a number of issues with installation, including a lack of spare fibre line capacity, Marcus was unable to be given a fibre broadband service, leaving him having to settle with far less than ideal standard landline broadband speeds. Marcus, who works as a university researcher, was simply unable to work effectively from home and carrying out even the most basic online tasks was always a slow and painful chore.

This frustrating experience led him to start researching alternative 5G-based broadband providers, in the hope that this would offer him a much faster connection, capable of meeting his and his wife's needs as they both work from home - and this is when he discovered National Broadband.

Although as a specialist alternative broadband provider the company is a lesser-known name compared to industry giants, Marcus was interested to see what services National Broadband could provide him with, as his past experiences dealing with smaller businesses had always delivered a positive outcome. As things turned out, he was not in the least disappointed.

Marcus said "We were genuinely shocked when we couldn't initially find suitable broadband. Living in the heart of London, we had presumed this wouldn't be an issue. Happily, the speeds which National Broadband has given us with its 5G service are fantastic. This is exactly what we needed, and no different to what the 'big names' all say they can offer but were simply unable to provide to us."

National Broadband was able to enable Marcus and his wife in a matter of days with a far faster and more stable connection via 5G that averages around 300Mpbs, with highs of 480Mpbs. The Meers' new ultrafast broadband service is proving a complete game-changer for the couple, with Marcus stating "It's the difference between night and day. National Broadband is giving us everything that we'd hoped for and more."

David Hennell, Director at National Broadband, commented "It's often assumed that residents within better-connected metropolitan areas won't ever suffer with poor quality broadband connections. However as Marcus's case makes clear, this simply isn't universally true, with the Digital Divide still persisting, even in highly urban locations like London."

He continued "Fortunately, the fact that cities and major towns are getting increasingly good 5G coverage means that more than capable alternative ultrafast connectivity can be swiftly and cost-effectively supplied to those in need. In an ever more digital world and with so many people relying on their broadband to be top- notch in order to enable effective working from home, we're proud that we're able to deliver where other service providers are falling short."