Almost 5 million (4.7 million) UK consumers have suffered a broadband outage of 3 hours or more in the past year, according to new research from Uswitch.com.

The average affected home experienced more than one day (29 hours) offline in total over the past year. More than one quarter (28%) of people have suffered a network outage during the working day, costing the UK 5 million working days with an over GBP 1.5 billion hit to the economy. 

Bristol is the broadband outage capital of the UK, with residents losing almost 3 million hours of broadband connectivity a year. Leeds saw the longest single outage during the past year, with residents reporting an outage lasting 54.4 hours. Londoners reported the most outage incidents, with more than 7 in the last year. Cardiff had the fewest outages with just 1 percent of people having lost their connection in the past year. Over one third (37%) of consumers suffering broadband outages used their mobile phone data or tethered their phone to their laptop/computer, and 5 percent used their neighbour's Wi-Fi connection.