Customer Service in the Broadband Industry: A Look at How 6G Internet Does it Better

Broadband plays a central role in our daily lives, providing us with the connections we need to work, play, and stay in touch with loved ones.

But it’s no secret that customer service in the industry can often be lacking, leaving many people frustrated and unhappy with their providers.

In this blog, we’ll take a closer look at the state of customer service in the UK broadband industry, exploring the most common complaints, the reasons behind these issues, and what 6G Internet is doing to keep our customers happy.

The state of customer service in the UK broadband industry

According to Ofcom’s latest reports, the number of complaints about broadband providers has been increasing in recent years.

Ofcom report shows complaints increased by 23%

In 2020, the number of complaints about broadband services increased by 23% compared to the previous year, and that figure has been rising ever since.

It’s important to state that these complaints represent a fraction of the total number of broadband customers in the UK. However, they still indicate a significant level of dissatisfaction with the service provided by some broadband providers.

What are people complaining about?

Here’s a look at some of the most common customer service complaints when it comes to broadband contracts:

Slow speeds
Outages
Billing issues
Installation problems
Data caps
Hidden fees
Poor customer service

Poor customer service

Another major issue is poor customer service. Customers often report dissatisfaction with the service they receive, including long wait times on hold, unhelpful representatives, issues not being resolved in a timely manner, and automated menus or chatbots that can’t answer specific or complex questions.

Local customer service team

This is one of the main reasons why 6G Internet decided to keep our customer service centre local. And it’s staffed by real people you can actually talk to.

The benefits of real customer service

Thanks to our locally based customer service centre, 6G Internet customers benefit from…

Personalised service: Real human customer service representatives can provide a more personalised customer experience, as they can understand and respond to individual needs and concerns.
Faster resolutions: Our staff can resolve issues more quickly than automated systems, as they can make decisions and take action in real-time.
Language & cultural understanding: A local-based customer service centre allows representatives to be familiar with the local culture, which can help build trust and better communication with customers.
Greater accountability: Companies with local-based customer service centres are more accountable to their customers, as they are physically located in the same area and are more easily accessible.

6G Internet: where customers get ‘real’ service

At 6G Internet, we understand that having a reliable and fast broadband connection is crucial in today’s world. That’s why we’re dedicated to providing the best possible service to our customers.

One big thing that sets us apart from other broadband providers is our locally-based customer service centre.

Our team of friendly and knowledgeable representatives are available to assist you with any questions or issues you may have, and they’re located right in your community.

And you’ll never have to deal with long wait times on hold or automated systems.

We believe that real people are the key to providing excellent customer service. Our representatives are trained to handle a wide range of issues and to find the best solution for each customer. Whether you need help with a technical problem or have a question about your bill, our team is here to help.

With our locally-based customer service centre and a commitment to providing the best possible service, we’re confident you’ll love being part of the 6G Internet family.

What is wireless broadband?

Things have come a long way since dial-up internet connections

Believe it or not, there are those of us who are old enough to remember when the internet consisted of squeaky dial-up connections, pages downloading at a rate of one per day and not being able to get online until your mum was off the phone.

Broadband replaces dial-up internet

Then came broadband, WiFi and speeds that increased a hundred-fold from 53 kbps (kilobits per second) to 5,300 kbps in a matter of a few years. Glorious, beautiful, life-changing internet became possible. But apart from gradual improvements in download speeds, the technology hasn’t really changed since it was introduced 20 years ago.

Fixed wireless fibre speed broadband from 6G Internet

Well, now change has arrived, and it’s come in the form of wireless broadband that will increase the speed of your internet more than a hundred times over again, from the current average of 46.2 Mbps (megabits per second) to 6,000 Mbps by 2025.

50 Mbps Broadband connections are the new dial-up

It means that in the years to come, we will start thinking of our current broadband connections in the same way as we remember dial-up: comically slow and hopelessly unable to achieve what we take for granted from our technology.

We think fixed wireless broadband is the future of ultrafast broadband

Wireless broadband has nothing to do with how you connect your devices at home; it is about how the internet reaches your home in the first place.

Traditional fibre to the cabinet (FTTC) connections need upgrading

Traditional broadband travels via high-speed fibre optic cable from national data centres to local exchanges and then by copper cable to your house. Because copper is terrible at carrying signals over any distance, providers are now in the process of switching them for fibre optic cables, resulting in ‘full fibre’ connections capable of up to 1,000 Mbps. This will take many years to complete, because it involves digging up every road to lay the new cable directly to people’s houses.

Fixed wireless fibre speed broadband is easy to install

Regardless, traditional broadband travels a long way and is limited by the type of cable that carries it, even the most sophisticated fibre optic technology.

Broadband fibre speed network reaches difficult locations not covered by traditional networks

With wireless broadband, the internet is sent to houses via radio signal at the speed of light, with no need for local exchanges and a far shorter distance to travel between the transmitter and receiver. It is broadcast via wireless transmitters installed on roof-tops, telecommunication masts, monopoles and street poles, creating a network that completely covers the town or city. As long as your home is within line-of-sight of one of the transmitters, you can receive wireless broadband, which is much faster and has better latency than anything that comes via cable.

The benefits of fixed wireless broadband

The positive aspects of wireless broadband are not just limited to its speed (although the headline numbers are pretty impressive).

Peak usage will become a thing of the past

With home phones slowly becoming a distant memory for newer generations, residents will be able to completely ditch their landlines if they want to. It also means there will be no such thing as ‘peak’ usage anymore.

Lots of homes connected to the same traditional network slows down internet speeds

Currently, your home’s internet can slow down if lots of other households are online at the same time. That’s because the whole street often relies on the data from a single optical fibre split between houses.

No delays or congestion with fixed wireless fibre speed broadband connections

The wireless broadband connection provides every house with its own, individual link to ultra-high speed internet, unshared by any other household. It means that no matter how many houses on your street are streaming the latest 4K Ultra HD films, your home’s connection will not slow down.

Fixed wireless fibre speed broadband networks upgrade quickly with advances in technology

One of the most exciting things about wireless broadband is that we are still at the very early stages of its development. Sure, 6,000 Mbps sounds fast now, just as 6 Mbps sounded fast in 1999, but as more and more money continues to flow into R&D for wireless technology, we will inevitably see speeds increase even further.

A new digital landscape created with fibre speed broadband networks

The world is only a few years away from realising the potential of a completely new digital landscape. If you have been in any way excited, entertained or enraptured by the internet over the last 20 years, just imagine what the next couple of decades are going to bring.

The public sector must start working together to address digital inclusion

Poverty costs everyone a lot of money – from the families themselves via the poverty premium, to health and social care services, schools and housing.

The public sector impacted by families living in poverty

In fact, the impact of families living in poverty affects every part of the public sector, taking up 25% of health spending, more than a third of the housing budget and 60% of children’s social care expenditure.

A 2016 report by Heriot Watt and Loughborough Universities found that dealing with the consequences of poverty costs the public purse £78 billion a year – that’s £1,200 for every person in the UK. While it falls to the whole of society to take action to address the underlying causes, it is also the duty of each public service to manage the consequences of poverty as effectively and efficiently as possible. This means reducing its impact on families while also finding ways to reduce the impact on each service’s budget, allowing it to free valuable funds to help more people.

The allure of digitising services

The squeeze on public finances has run parallel to the boom in technology, with every organisation now searching for digital solutions to help improve the service they provide and save money at the same time.

Digital Inclusion helps the public sector

Unsurprisingly, each public service is focused on solving its own problems, but this has led to the mistaken impression that each problem is unique to them.

The NHS is continually exploring ways in which new technology can benefit its patients. Telehealth, for example, involves the use of health technology to monitor patients’ conditions remotely, meaning they are no longer required to stay in hospital and can live more independent lives at home. An NHS telehealth trial in Kent was found to reduce hospital admissions by 50% for the disease that was monitored, while home visits were also cut by 80%, resulting in savings of £1.2 million.

Social Housing benefits from Digital Inclusion

In a previous post, we mentioned a number of ways in which social housing providers are looking to digitise, including using artificial intelligence and big data to improve services to their tenants. Similarly, local authorities are searching for new ways to engage residents through digital services, reducing expenditure while allowing users to access adult and children’s social care services via apps, online portals and digital self-assessment forms.

The problem of digital exclusion

The focus on digital helps to cut costs and offers users the chance to engage on their own terms, but organisations are relying on the assumption that their users will have the means to access digital services. This is far less likely when dealing with families in poverty: Ofcom figures show that working-age people living in the poorest households are three times as likely to not have internet access compared to the national average. This leaves a sizeable portion of deprived service users at a further disadvantage: unable to benefit from digital services with alternative options dwindling as the channel shift picks up pace.

The point here is that digital exclusion affects every public organisation that has a duty of care to its service users. More often than not the responsibility for ensuring everyone can access online services falls to landlords or an individual department within a local authority, but this needs to change.

Instead of focusing on solving universal problems such as digital exclusion in silos, public sector organisations will achieve a far greater impact by pooling their respective resources, expertise and capabilities.

The causes of poverty cannot be addressed by a single charity, organisation, business or community, and neither can the consequences.

Why wireless beats fibre optic broadband

Most internet providers will tell you that fibre optic broadband is the future. Well, they aren’t exactly fibbing, but they are being pretty liberal with the truth. Sure, connecting your home directly to fibre optic broadband (known in the biz as ‘FTTP’) is better than using traditional copper cables: It’s faster and your speed is no longer affected by how far your home is from the internet exchange. But upgrading your broadband is like buying a remote control aeroplane – if you really want to take off, cables kind of defeat the purpose. Here’s why:

The technology is already almost out of date

Fibre Broadband speeds up to 1Gbps

Work has only just begun to install FTTP cables across the UK, which are expected to be able to deliver home broadband at speeds of approximately 1 Gbps. That’s 1,000 Mbps – pretty fast compared to average speeds now. But in reality, broadband technology is only a few years away from being capable of delivering internet that is much, much faster.

Replacing copper cables is costly and time consuming

This means that by the time all the fancy new cable has been laid to connect homes directly to fibre optic broadband (which is likely to be some point in the next decade), it will already be hopelessly unable to cope with the speeds that other technology will be capable of. And the only way to bring it up to date is spend another decade re-laying newer cable, only for the cycle to begin again.

Fixed wireless fibre speed broadband

Fixed Wireless technology does not suffer from the same problems as FTTP. The wireless transmitters that broadcast the broadband signal to your home are roughly the size of a packet of sugar and set on top of a mast, similar to mobile phone towers.

6G Internet investing in the future fast broadband

The billions of pounds being invested in wireless technology means it is improving at an incredible rate, so whenever faster broadband becomes possible, it’s simply a matter of swapping out the transmitters for an updated version. No digging, no waiting, just the fastest broadband that modern technology can achieve, beamed directly to your home.

Fibre optic broadband availability is a real pain

bulldozer scraping a road conventional fibre-optic broadband requires trenches to be dug and recovered

If you don’t have FTTP yet, connecting your town means putting cables into the ground to connect every house in every street. That involves a LOT of closed roads, detours, noise, and the hassle of trying to get in and out of your house while dodging workmen, trenches, vans and equipment for months on end. It’s all the fun of your morning traffic jam, extended to the rest of your daytime, leisure time and down time. Plus, with the added bonus of a carbon footprint that would make a low-budget airline blush.

6G Internet lower carbon foot print than conventional fibre broadband

Fixed Wireless broadband uses radio transmitters set up around your town. They are installed in a day or two and can be maintained and upgraded without so much as a single closed road. It’s less hassle, a lower carbon footprint and will last a good 50 to 60 years before needing to be replaced.

Fibre optic broadband deals have no flexibility

Whichever provider you end up choosing, they have to cover the massive expense of the installation and maintenance of their new and improved FTTP network. Which means passing the costs on to you. You want ultra-fast broadband speeds? It’ll cost you double what you’re paying now. Just upgraded your TV to 4K Ultra HD? Better be prepared to sign up to a brand new contract for faster broadband to cope with it. Want to downgrade your speed? There’s that brand new contract again.

6g Internet the flexible way to enjoy ultra-fast broadband

Fixed Wireless broadband is more flexible (well, it is the way we do it here at 6G Internet). Because our installation and running costs are lower, our customers can choose to switch to any package that suits them without extending or renewing their contract. It’s simply a matter of picking what’s right for your household at that particular time. Stick or switch. Upgrade or downgrade. It’s fine by us and it’s up to you.

But here’s the most important bit: because we don’t need to spend as much money on our infrastructure to deliver higher speeds, we can deliver ultra-fast broadband without having to charge the inflated prices our FTTP competitors do. And as we improve our speeds and technology, our customers can enjoy ever faster broadband. The government wants most areas to be able to access 1 Gbps broadband by 2025. By that time, we will be providing internet that is six times faster – for the same price.

If you’re interested in joining the wireless revolution, check if it’s available in your area now.