Ofcom says WiFi speed could be slowed down by Christmas lights

Christmas, one of the most cheerful holidays of the year, is just around on the corner and fitting decorations have already made a first appearance, including, red-nose raindeers, Christmas trees, marshmallows and of course lots and lots of bright fairy lights.

But while you may be looking forward to putting your fairy lights on every part of the house, be aware that the Christmas spirit you’re looking for may cost your internet speed.

Ofcom found out that fairy lights could slow down your Wi-Fi speed, so the British communications regulator rolled out an app that scatters signals in order to check whether data is flowing uninterrupted from routers to phones and tablets.

The app is called Ofcom Wi-Fi Checker and it came as part of a research through which scientists are studying the claim that Wi-Fi connection in six millions of houses and offices is not as fast as it could be.

More than that, the said app can also help the user find out a solution to what may be causing a slower connection, since the same issue could occur from other electronic devices in the environment, such as baby monitors, microwaves or Christmas fairy lights.

According to Ofcom’s 2015 Connected Nations report, homes in the United Kingdom now have access to broadband speeds that reach 30 Megabits per second (Mbps), while superfast broadband is now available to more than 83% of UK homes, up from 75% in the same period in 2014.

At the same time, though, the report shows that 2.4 million UK homes – nearly 8% – cannot get speeds of 10Mbps or more. Many of these homes are located in rural areas.

The company has posted a few tips to help get your connection up to higher speeds some of them are: “Move your router away from electrical devices”, “Move your router to a different part of your home” and “Try restarting your wireless router”.

Staff writer at Technology News Extra.

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