A decent broadband connection is considered a modern day essential but a major new Which? survey has found that 59% of households – 16 million across the country – experience​​d some kind of problem with their home internet connection in the last year.

Three in ten of those affected said the issues made it much more difficult to pay bills online or to use online banking services, and 19% even said that the problems have had a negative financial impact on them.

New broadband campaign and online tools

To help consumers get better connected, Which? is today launching a new campaign to Fix Bad Broadband.

As part of the campaign it’s also developed a free broadband speed checker and is calling on people to use the tool to find out their actual broadband speed. This will help customers to ensure they’re getting the speeds that they expect and will enable Which? to build a picture of the real speeds and problems people are experiencing across the country.

Customers that are unhappy about their speeds can use Which?’s new broadband complaint tool to quickly make a formal complaint to their provider.

The new tools are accompanied by a raft of practical advice giving tips on how to speed up slow connections and how to switch broadband providers.

Which? Managing Director of Home Services Alex Neill said: ‘With millions of us frustrated by​ bad broadband and stopped from doing the simplest of online tasks, we have launched a new, free tool to help people improve their connection.

‘There is nothing more annoying than your internet cutting out​ when you’re streaming your favourite programme​, ​or ​when you’ve spent ages filling your online ​shopping​ basket but your connection is too slow to get you to the checkout. ​Far too many people are experiencing problems with their broadband across the country and we want to help people to​ fix ​it.’

For the last week Sky has been rolling out a major update to Sky Q set-top boxes that brings along some major new features.

Undoubtedly the biggest change brought on by the update is that owners can finally use the voice control function of their Sky Q remote. On the side of the remote is a small button labelled with a microphone – hold it down and speak into the controller and you can control the box solely with your voice.

Not only can you navigate directly to movies or TV shows by simply saying their name, but you also don’t need to be that precise with your commands. Asking to see the “Manchester United game”, for example, will take you to their next televised fixture in the planner.

PVR and set-top box reviews – see all the best, and worst, right here

You can also search films via a variety of criteria, such as director, leading star, or simply “something new”. In a fun Easter Egg from Sky, famous quotes will even work – “I’ll have what she’s having” will take you to When Harry Met Sally, for example.

This function is only available to those who have a Sky Q Touch remote, though. That should be all Sky Q 2TB owners – others may have the non-touch variant, which has the familiar Sky arrow buttons in its centre, rather than a touch-sensitive pad.

 Quality of life changes

Whilst the voice commands are a welcome addition, the changes that long-term Sky Q users may most be looking forward to are those made to the electronic programme guide (EPG).

The ‘My Q’ page is now the default homepage on the main menu. It offers a tailored set of recommendations depending on what you’ve been watching or recording, whilst the ‘Continue Watching’ option allows you to jump straight back in to whatever recorded or on-demand content you were in the middle of enjoying when you last switched on. Mercifully, the ‘TV Guide’ is only one swipe away from this new homepage, too.

Sky says that the update will reach all Sky Q customers by the end of Spring. Interested? Click the link to see our full Sky Q 2TB box review.