Ofcom takes the time to explain WiFi performance problems

Common household gadgets such as TVs and baby monitors are having a drastic effect on the performance of the UK WiFi performance - that's the finding of an Ofcom-commissioned report published by specialist consultancy Mass.

Making sure it's overseeing efficient use of radio spectrum, including the unlicensed 2.4GHz band currently used by WiFi, Ofcom asked Mass to investigate how efficient the band is and whether or not it's the victim of interference.

Although most WiFi users commonly blame nearby networks for a sluggish connection, Mass found common household gadgets such as TVs had the most significant effect on performance:

“Our measurements and experiments suggest that the WiFi networks are capable of carrying much more traffic than they actually do. However, interference between different types of devices is commonplace, leading to loss of service quality for many users.”

In total Mass found between 10 and 15 per cent of users experience problems when using WiFi access to the internet. Some areas were found to be more susceptible to service problems than others. Generally, inner city areas were found to provide poorer WiFi services due to heavy spectrum congestion, although other locations such as railway stations didn't fair well either.

Most interesting was the discovery that high density WiFi networks increases the probability of WiFi users experiencing interference and network degradation effects.