Concerns over reliance on home broadband in swine flu breakout

Concerns have recently been raised with regards to the possible reliance of companies on workers home broadband connections should a new wave of swine flu break out over the coming months.

Earlier this year a new strain of flu known as swine flu swept the UK, with many people having to take time off work as a result of contracting this flu. Whilst in most cases the flu was mild health officials warned that later in the year there could be a fresh and more serious outbreak of this flu, and this has put many employers on alert as a result of the possibility of staff having to take time off work in order to prevent spreading the infection to others.

However, many of these employers will be hoping to get their workers to carry on with their duties from home using their home broadband connections, and this has raised concern amongst some industry groups. A new report has recently been released by Gartner, and the report has warned that there is a good chance that the UK’s infrastructure will fail to cope with demand if a large number of companies try to get employees to use their home broadband connections to work from home in order to keep things ticking.

An official involved in the report said that companies needed to consider alternative ideas for working from home rather than being reliant on broadband. She said: “Organisations need to set up a variety of strategies for WAH (Work at Home) including pandemic and WAH impact planning in all negotiations with network service providers, deciding in advance which business operations require heavy internet usage and possibly staggering hours of operation.”

The higher speeds that now come with home broadband services coupled with increased accessibility has made it possible for many more people to spend some time working from home, but if there is a fresh outbreak of swine flu and a large number of people are suddenly using their home broadband to work from home whilst they are off work there could be serious problems in terms of the infrastructure according to officials.

Source – Ashdown Group