Summarize and humanize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in English
By CHARLOTTE MCINTYRE FOR DAILY MAIL AUSTRALIA Published: 16:44 BST, 6 April 2025 | Updated: 16:45 BST, 6 April 2025
A growing number of Australians are being forced to go into the office instead of working remotely because of unreliable internet.Latest data shows Australia has dropped to 81 in the world for fixed broadband performance and is behind countries such as Nicaragua, Uzbekistan and El Salvador. Leyla Perez, a 25-year-old financial analyst from Prestons, in Sydney’s west has to make a three-hour round trip into the office due to her dire internet. Ms Perez is unable to work remotely because her internet is too unreliable and has repeatedly frozen while she tries to complete work at home. ‘My internet freezes most of the time when I work from home – during meetings my app would crash and my camera turns off,’ she told Daily Mail Australia. ‘It [happened] during an important meeting one day and I was so frustrated – I felt unprofessional and embarrassed. It’s extremely frustrating because I want to look professional during my meetings with clients.’Leyla revealed the embarrassing moment was ‘the final straw’ and she downgraded her home internet plan to ‘cut costs’.’I don’t understand how it’s even possible that we live in a country like Australia and in a major city like Sydney and not have access to proper internet,’ she said. Leyla Perez, 25, is a financial analyst from Prestons, in Sydney’s west (pictured) Ms Perez has to make a three-hour round trip into the office due to her dire internet’I was paying $129 per month for something that essentially wasn’t working.’The financial analyst explained her three-hour round trip to the office is mentally and physically ‘draining’.’I don’t have the energy to socialise or meet up with friends after getting home at around 7pm, when I leave home at around 6.30am,’ she added. Researcher Steven Guy, 67, shares Leyla’s frustration and said he has missed work shifts and lost pat due to his poor internet connection. ‘I can’t get paid for work that I can’t do,’ he told this publication. ‘The poor internet can cost me up to $280 per day.’It is causing me to consider other work as I’m not getting enough work from my current employer because of the poor internet service in my house.’Australian’s internet has fallen behind on the global stage and complaints about the service continue to louden. Ms Perez says she is unable to work remotely because her internet is too unreliable and has repeatedly frozen while she tries to complete work at home Researcher Steven Guy, 67, shares Leyla’s frustration and said he has missed work shifts and lost pat due to his poor internet connectionSlow internet and patchy service tops the list for reports made to the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman with a 13 per cent increase in complaints during the last quarter of 2024.’I remember when I first came to Australia 12 years ago and I had to wait three weeks for an ADSL connection,’ said Philip Luo, CEO of Australian internet service provider Occom, said. ‘I was shocked how long things take here and I couldn’t believe people accepted that as being a normal service.’We’re definitely starting to see more consumers waking up to the fact that they deserve and can get better service with providers outside the big players in the market.’ Occom has doubled its customer base since 2022 and prides itself on having a 4.9/5 star customer satisfaction rating, with 80 per cent of customer calls being picked up within 19 seconds in 2025. The latest data from the NBN shows the average Australian household is downloading ten times more than it did a decade ago, with that number expected to double again by 2029.Globally, the average number of internet-connected devices in broadband households has reached 25 and is expected to top 44 by the end of the decade.
Advertisement
Share or comment on this article:
I’ve been forced into a three-hour commute after an embarrassing incident while working from home… and many Aussies can relate
