New research by Vodafone has revealed that European households have rapidly shifted to permanent ‘digital-first’ lifestyles in the wake of the global pandemic – with high-quality, reliable and secure WiFi now considered critical for wireless work, entertainment and social connectivity in the home.
Households in Germany, Spain, Italy and the UK were surveyed by Kantar for Vodafone in February 2022. With European homes possessing up to nine WiFi-enabled devices, three-quarters of householders agreed that the provision of reliable WiFi was their number one requirement.
Four-in-five households where someone works from home regarded WiFi to be as important as electricity and gas, with the same number of home workers saying they couldn’t work at all without WiFi.
With an increase of more than 68% in home working, as post-pandemic work/lifestyle patterns remain in place, Vodafone found that European households were balancing the competing demands for professional, personal and entertainment wireless connectivity.
WiFi coverage is now expected to be everywhere in the home – with two-thirds of households saying that they valued the ability to connect over WiFi anywhere in their property and not just in living areas near their WiFi router. 50% of European households expected WiFi to be available in every room of their house.
Domestic WiFi consumption continues to rise – 80% of households said they needed WiFi more at home. The use of it to make video calls has also increased by 79% over the last couple of years. At the same time, nine-out-of-10 households have attempted to tackle wireless connectivity challenges themselves without contacting their router provider’s helpdesk.
Secured WiFi is a secured home – almost three-quarters of households said that wireless security is as important to them as locking the front door.
Commenting on the research, Daniel Lambrou, Head of Broadband, Vodafone UK, said: “The last two years have seen a dramatic shift in home connectivity demands, as ‘digital’ lifestyles combined with growth of home working, streaming entertainment and smart devices in every room of the house.
“Vodafone’s Pro Broadband delivers reliable WiFi in every room, guaranteed with remote optimisation via the cloud for the best connection, and a dedicated team of WiFi Xperts. Plus parental controls with Norton 360 Premium included free for 12 months for every Pro Broadband customer.
“Pro Broadband also provides an unbreakable connection with its 4G Broadband Backup from the UK’s unbeatable mobile network for reliability – ensuring customers have a reliable and secure wireless connection at home, at an affordable price.”
