Working from home may be too much for old internet

The UK’S core broadband set-up is unlikely to cope with heavy demand from remote staff, experts say

THE UK’S ageing broadband infrastructure is unable to cope with millions of people working from home during the coronavirus outbreak, experts have said.

Academics said yesterday that plans for large scale home working will put an unprecedented strain on the core broadband network.

Increasing numbers of companies are offering staff the option of staying at home rather than travelling to offices, with numbers expected to rise in the coming weeks.

The Government has predicted that up to a fifth of the UK’S workforce could be off sick at the same time during the peak of coronavirus. There’s an expectation that similar numbers will choose to stay at home even if not infected by Covid-19 to avoid catching the disease.

Home broadband is not set up to cope with the heavy use for tasks such as mass internet trading and video conference calls. Traders are particularly vulnerable to lagging internet speeds as they require high-speed connections to display the latest stock prices.

Only three million homes and businesses in the UK – around 10 per cent of the country – have access to the latest full-fibre broadband, according to an Ofcom study released last year. Industry experts said that underinvestment in the ageing broadband networks for rural areas could result in internet blackouts.

Prof Izzat Darwazeh, the Chair of Communications Engineering at University College London, said: “I doubt that the core network can cope if even tens of thousands of people who work in the City of London are forced to work from home and need access to video conferencing and trading systems.”

He added: “One of the main worries if there’s sudden very heavy demand on a network is that parts of it will get completely congested and blocked.”

Prof Alan Woodward, a cybersecurity expert from the University of Surrey, warned that the systems used by banks and other businesses to manage people working from home may become “bottlenecks” for employees, with the technology unused to handling high levels of internet traffic.

He said: “Using personal computers to access work networks could also raise cybersecurity issues for businesses if the devices aren’t kept up to date.”

An executive at a broadband network said: “A lot of the country is on fibre, those users won’t be affected too much. The biggest problem will be for people who are on older copper networks. There’s a huge amount of packet loss when it comes to copper wires. Video chats will eventually run into lag issues. The resolution will be absolutely shoddy.”

Yesterday JP Morgan, the US investment bank, became the first of the major financial institutions to implement a full-scale coronavirus workplace contingency plan. More than 1,000 staff at its UK headquarters in Canary Wharf in east London were relocated to satellite offices in central London and in Basingstoke, in Hampshire.

Other banks are expected to implement their own contingency plans in coming days with staff encouraged to work from home where suitable.

A spokesman for Santander, one of Britain’s largest banking groups, said: “As the situation develops we are continuously working to ensure our plans remain relevant and robust. Where appropriate, colleagues will be able to work from home and we have asked everybody to refrain from non-essential travel between our offices.”

There is increasing anecdotal evidence of staff staying away from offices with commuters posting photographs of near empty train carriages on certain routes. There is also evidence of commuters staggering their journey times to avoid rush hour.

Transport for London (TFL) suggested that last week, before the coronavirus had yet taken a proper grip, about 100,000 fewer journeys were taken. Initial figures suggested a 2 per cent fall in journeys on trains and buses across the London network but that will be expected to decline much faster in coming days.

Yesterday, TFL confirmed one of its employees had tested positive for coronavirus but stressed the member of staff was office-based and not involved in operational duties that could have a knock-on effect on services if colleagues were forced to self-isolate.

A second student at Oxford University has tested positive for the virus, a spokesman confirmed last night.