New research has revealed that UK businesses lost over 50 million hours and £3.7 billion due too internet failures in 2023, according to a new report.

While this statistic paints a stark picture, the research commissioned by Beaming, a broadband ISP, does show that the amount of time businesses lose to connectivity failures has fallen by a fifth in the last five years.

However, growing internet dependence means that the cost of downtime has increased by 400%.

The research is based on a survey of 504 UK businesses using connectivity from various internet service providers by Censuswide.

Cumulatively, UK businesses experienced 8.8 million internet failures and 50.5 million hours of disruptive downtime in 2023, where the ability to trade or access vital services was impaired.

The amount of time businesses lost to connectivity failures in 2023 was a fifth lower than in 2018, when Beaming carried out a similar survey. However, the cost increased fivefold, from £742m in 2018 to £3.7bn in 2023.

Heightened dependence on connectivity for communication, e-commerce and access to cloud applications means 15% of UK businesses, some 850,000 nationwide, would now start losing money the moment their connectivity fails. This is 81,000 more firms than five years ago.

During 8-hour internet outages – a standard working day – 39% of businesses now would lose money. This compares to 34% at the end of 2018 and represents an increase of 240,000 companies nationwide.

According to the research, median time for financial losses to kick in from internet failures is six hours for businesses with employees today. This applies to employers of all sizes, from micro-companies with two to 10 employees to big companies with more than 250 staff members.

SMEs bore the brunt of internet disruptions in 2023, enduring an average of three to four failures and 19 hours of downtime each. Those working a standard eight-hour day and five-day week lose more than two working days a year to downtime, around 1% of their productive time.

The hospitality, IT, and manufacturing sectors experienced the highest levels of internet downtime and the biggest financial impact. On average, hospitality businesses lost 27 hours to downtime in 2023, while companies in the IT industry lost an estimated £555m to connectivity failures.

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“The adoption of digital technologies has been a lifeline for business survival and a driver for increased prosperity in recent years, but this has come with a heightened dependence on connectivity,” Sonia Blizzard, managing director of Beaming said.

“Companies are demanding more of their connectivity than ever before, and those relying on e-commerce, automation and public cloud services then incur the highest costs due to internet downtime.”

“Greater use of faster, stronger, more resilient forms of connectivity has helped reduce downtime, whilst downtime has become much more costly. Good planning, higher capacity services and expert support are vital now to reduce the risk of internet failure and the associated financial fallout.”