Philip Smith, Active Engineering Manager, ESB Telecoms
As we reflect on the past two years and emerge from lockdown, it is clear to many that our purchasing behaviour has changed. Lockdown has allowed us to reflect on the important things in life, with many people making life-changing decisions. These changes have varied from changing jobs to moving back nearer home to be near parents or simply spending more time with loved ones.
A significant change for many is that many companies now offer flexible office and remote working, with 74% of workers in Dublin working from home most days and 34% outside of Dublin. This has improved work-life balance and increased productivity. Whether it is dropping off the children at school, early morning gym sessions or the traffic congestion to the office, many employees now have the flexibility to work around family and personal activities.
Connectivity evolution
People are now connected all the time, either at home, in the office or on the move, and telecoms companies have had to embrace how users now use their service, ensuring improved connectivity speeds for both fixed broadband and mobile data. Traditionally, home users only used the home broadband in the morning and evenings, as they were based in the office during the day. Now with remote working, users are connected throughout the day to the broadband service. The same is true for mobile data. Rather than users travelling to work and connecting to different mobile cells. Users are now connected to the same cell for longer.
How we use broadband connectivity
Search engines, email and social messaging remain the top three services people use when accessing the Internet. For these services, the highest users are aged between 18 and 34 years. However, unified collaboration (calls and video), online banking and payment apps, and online reading have increased in recent years.
The number of devices connected to home Wi-Fi and Broadband has also increased, such as smart TV’s, smart lighting, smart doorbells, etc. In addition, householders are more likely to have subscription services to streaming services such as Netflix, Disney+, Amazon Prime or Spotify.