Work From Home trends for ISPs in 2022

Anticipating your subscribers' needs

With more and more people working from home (WFH), having efficient and reliable Wi-Fi has never been more crucial. Understanding current WFH trends will help Internet Service Providers (ISP) anticipate their subscribers’ needs and ultimately, provide the best possible service. 

The volume of Americans who work from home has dramatically increased since the onset of the pandemic. While it was merely a temporary adjustment for some, WFH has become a permanent practice for nearly half of the country’s workforce.  

According to Gartner, a technological research and consulting firm, 48% of employees will work remotely or follow a hybrid model in the post pandemic world. On a global scale, a 2022 study from Owl labs found that 62% of workers between the ages of 22 and 65 claim to work remotely at least occasionally. 

Your subscribers need Wi-Fi that can handle telecommunication demands 

Telecommunication services like Zoom, Slack, and RingCentral are integral to any business’s success in the WFH era. This is evident in the stark increase of video-based communication use. For example, at the end of 2019, Zoom only averaged 10 million daily users, but come mid-2020, the average amount of daily users shot up 300 million. 

Zoom became so ingrained in the day-to-day of America’s workforce that the New York Times listed “Zoom” as one of the phrases that defined 2020, and TIME listed “on mute” as one of 2020’s defining phrases, which denotes a person speaking while muted on a Zoom call. Long story short, Zoom and other video-based communication platforms are ubiquitous in the WFH era. 

So, what does this trend mean for ISPs? While it’s obvious that ISPs should ensure they’re offering Wi-Fi that can run the minimal rate of Mbps that video calls require, subscribers may not think to divulge all the necessary information. For instance, a subscriber who WFH may tell you they use Zoom daily but glance over the fact that they also need to run their browser to take notes or screen share during their calls. Getting these details from your subscribers is an important step to providing them with adequate connectivity while offering the lowest possible rates. 

The rise of the freelancers 

The pandemic not only catapulted America’s workforce out of the office and into their homes, but it also changed the landscape of employment. In fall of last year, Forbes reported that more than 59 million Americans had performed freelance work that year. That means that more than one-third of working citizens are independent contractors, most of whom rely on the internet for their labor.  

The bulk of these freelancers (75%) are artists. What does that mean for ISPs? Of course, most creative design software programs, like any one of Adobe’s applications, don’t require internet to operate. However, most freelancers have to upload their completed projects online in order to deliver them and ultimately get paid. That means that any freelancer working from home will require fast uploading times (unless they want to wait 22 hours for their Premiere Pro project to upload to Google Drive). 

On the flip side, high downloading speeds are equally important for freelancers. Creative applications periodically need to update, and it’s not uncommon for freelancers to collaborate on projects, which can require downloading files.  

Vilo Living for ISPs 

Understanding your subscriber’s specific needs is essential to providing unparalleled internet service. If you’re looking for a way to provide consistent Wi-Fi throughout a subscriber’s home so that they can work from their couch or their kitchen, Vilo Living’s Wi-Fi Mesh System is the most affordable mesh system on the market.  

Vilo Living’s ISP Portal allows ISPs to quickly check to see which devices are using the most bandwidth, which will come in handy if you have a subscriber trying to do freelance work in a home with Fortnite-playing kids. The Portal also gives you network insights so you can resolve certain issues without a truck roll. To learn more about how Vilo Living can help you accelerate your business, click here.  

Anticipating your subscribers’ needs in 2022 – Vilo Living’s Wi-Fi Mesh System