01.09.15
Less than 1 in 10 public sector staff benefiting from 4G connectivity
Only 8% of Britain’s public sector frontline workers have access to 4G connectivity, despite more than half of them saying it is “very or fairly” important to their organisation.
New research by YouGov and Vodafone UK found that few workers – including police officers, district nurses and social workers – had the sorts of mobile net speeds that could help them improve the services they offer and work more efficiently.
Nearly half of the senior respondents surveyed reported a lack of knowledge of 4G’s benefits, while 30% of them have a warped perception of the costs.
Greater connectivity could prove beneficial to accessing critical information and updating records electronically, as well as speed up decision-making and reduce time spent on administration.
Mick Wayman, head of public sector at Vodafone UK, said: “As public sector organisations face continued budget cuts, delivering quality services to citizens is an increasing challenge.
“Armed with cost-effective mobile devices and 4G connectivity, frontline workers can access and update centralised records such as medical and criminal history while they are out in the field. This helps them to make better decisions in the moment, eliminates the need to get ‘back to base’ to complete paperwork and reduces time spent on administration.
“They can reinvest time and resource where they’re needed most, whether that’s visiting a patient in their own home, on the beat, or elsewhere in the community. In frontline services such as the police where every second counts, 4G really can make a big difference.”
More than half of respondents said that uploading and downloading large files, applications and critical information is an important feature in their job.
High capacity connectivity can also support the top three priorities stressed by more than half of survey respondents: improving operational efficiency, improving customer experience and reducing overall business costs.
The research was based on a survey in February 2015 with a total sample size of 1,401 senior decision makers, including 465 respondents from the public sector. This gives a margin of error of about 5% (at a 95% confidence level).