Edinburgh was named ahead of Bristol, Leeds, Sheffield and Brighton in terms of outages over the last 12 months.

Residents have suffered the longest time without broadband per person and losing nine million hours of broadband over the year.

Uswitch noted that that was a major turnaround from last year’s research, which found that Edinburgh experienced some of the fewest outages in the UK.

The news comes as part of a wider research study conducted by Uswitch which indicates that nearly 15 million homes across the UK suffered a broadband outage lasting three hours or more in the last year.

The study has revealed that the number of people hit by internet disruption across the UK is three times higher than last year.

Meanwhile, Belfast residents reported the shortest amount of downtime, with only 11 hours of outages reported over the course of the year.

The survey – which included 4,000 people – found that the average home was left offline for more than two days over the course of a year, with 16 million working days lost to outages.

According to Uswitch, 36% of people who experienced problems with their broadband resorted to using their mobile data to stay online, resulting in 63% of people within this data pool going through their entire monthly data allowance as a result.

Service disruption can also have a significant impact on the economy, with the firm estimating it has cost the UK almost £5bn in lost work time.

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Ernest Doku, Uswitch’s broadband expert, said: “Outages have affected the country like never before over the past 12 months, with three times as many people complaining of a lost connection than in the previous year.

“If it’s clear that the issues are beyond your control, contact your provider and they will be able to inform you of any problems in your area and, hopefully, an estimated time for a resolution.

“If your connection goes down for more than two days you could be entitled to compensation of just over £8 a day,” he adds.

Despite the inconvenience, only two-fifths of customers who experienced outages complained to their provider about the issue. However, more than a third (37%) are tempted to switch broadband providers.

Doke goes on to say: “Most of the UK’s big broadband providers are signed up to Ofcom’s auto-compensation scheme, so you should be covered. These rules were relaxed during the pandemic as providers focused on keeping the country running, but from July the scheme will be up and running again.”