Majority of Brits living in a mobile black-spot

Two thirds of Brits struggle to get mobile phone reception at home with Londoners faring worst of all

63% of us have to go outside our house to get mobile signal, and 6% get our best reception in the loo

66% of Brits experience difficulty getting mobile phone signal at home, causing over a third to be cut off from an important call. Londoners are most affected with 44% having been dropped mid-conversation.

In fact, those closest to the capital were most likely to have trouble getting mobile reception at home, with 73% of Londoners, and 68% of those in the South West experiencing signal problems. Those in the North East (59%) and Scotland (60%) were least affected.

The research, commissioned by Panasonic, shows the lack of signal at home is driving us to extreme lengths and crazy contortions in the search for connectivity. 32% admit to stepping out the front or back door, 31% head all the way outside into the garden or onto the balcony and 27% of us squash ourselves up against the window. Worst of all, 6% have to dash to the loo in order to get to get the best reception.

This issue is causing us to lose faith in our mobiles and return to our landlines for important calls. 36% of us consider our mobiles unreliable for calls where we may be on hold for a long time (such as calling utility providers), 26% say the same for making purchases over the phone and 23% of us don't trust our mobiles when conducting telephone interviews or work calls at home. Instead, we prefer to use our landline for calls that we expect to last a bit longer, such as calling utility providers (55%) and calling family members (48%).

61% say that it is less stressful to make important calls from our landline phones rather than our mobile phones because the connection is more reliable (62%), the sound quality is clearer (49%) and it's cheaper so we don't have to worry about the length of the call (49%). Those in Wales were most likely to worry about the cost of mobile calls, with 61% citing the lower costs of landline calls as a stress-busting factor. One of the easiest ways to save money on phone calls is to use landlines for Freephone numbers, and 62% of us have cottoned on to this fact.

It's not just the cost; the landline still holds a place in family life. 85% of us make sure our children know where the landline is in case of emergencies and 72% of us still make sure that our children know the home phone number off-by-heart.

What this research shows us is that we consider our landlines reliable; whether that's for emergencies, work calls or waiting on hold, says Helen Dixon, Head of Home Phones at Panasonic.

The benefits of modern home phones mean that the cost savings associated with using a landline rather than a mobile when at home are just an added bonus on top of consistent connectivity and clear conversations. DECT technology allows you the freedom of movement within your home, without having to resort to hanging out the window.

According to Ofcom almost a third of people in the UK suffer problems with mobile phone coverage at least every week and a fifth of people experience blocked or dropped calls at least once a week. Ofcom says this inconvenience is worse in rural areas where there are fewer mobile masts to deliver calls and data to phones. The UK regulator recognises the patchy nature of national mobile coverage and has called on service providers to complete their promise to provide voice, SMS coverage to 90% of the country by 2017.

However, there are 25 million UK fixed landlines and only 16% of UK adults live in a mobile-only home, meaning that many people can beat the signal-fade at home by making use of their landline connection for phone calls.

-Ends -

Survey information

Survey Methodology

The survey was conducted among 3003 UK adults with a mobile phone and landline. The interviews were conducted online by Redshift Research in March 2015 using an email invitation and an online survey.

About Panasonic

Panasonic Corporation is a worldwide leader in the development and engineering of electronic technologies and solutions for customers in residential, non-residential, mobility and personal applications. Since its founding in 1918, the company has expanded globally and now operates over 500 consolidated companies worldwide, recording consolidated net sales of 7.74 trillion yen (57.74 billion Euro) for the year ended March 31, 2014. Committed to pursuing new value through innovation across divisional lines, the company strives to create a better life and a better world for its customers. For more information about Panasonic, please visit the companys website at http://panasonic.net/.

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