A new report commissioned by Liberty Global from consultants A.T. Kearney suggests that 38% of us value the collective benefits of home broadband such as the quality of the network coverage and innovation, more than other factors. In comparison, 33% of us highlighted the more individual benefits such as bundle size and speed and only 16% felt that price was the most important factor followed by flexibility at 13%.

Eight thousand people in the following European countries –Switzerland, the UK, Poland, France, Ireland, Germany and the Netherlands were surveyed for the report.

As one of the the report’s findings is that cost is a lower priority for consumers then we might have expected suggests that instead of focusing on price, regulators would be better off developing policies that successfully balanced the other factors valued by broadband users such as network quality and coverage.

Interestingly, the report establishes that there is a positive relationship between price, investment in high-quality home broadband and the subsequent benefits delivered to society as a whole. This is supported by the fact that the top 10 EU countries (in terms of relative price levels) perform better than the bottom 10 across various indicators of benefits to society – including big data analytics, cloud computing, e-government services, shopping and online education – used for the study.

The study also reveals that in six out of eight European countries surveyed, WiFi and access to home broadband scores either first, or joint first, when ranked against things like holidays, favourite TV channels, chocolate and even sex. The only two countries in which home broadband & WiFi access did not come first were Switzerland and Poland.

Perhaps not quite so surprising is that the youngest generation of respondents (aged 18 to 29) considered broadband & WiFi to be especially valuable, and on average would consider compensation of around £28,500 necessary for them to do without access for a year. This is four times the amount indicated by the 50 to 65 age group.

Hans Boezel, principal, communications, media & technology practice, AT Kearney, added: “We fully appreciate that capturing the ‘real’ opinion of customers is always challenging. However, by focusing on understanding and appreciating the order of magnitude of various findings, this report already provides sufficient guidance for informed debate and decision-making around what is really of importance to a consumer. This not just in the limited time they are in a ‘purchasing mode’, but also when they are actually using the service itself, which they are most of the time.”

It certainly makes interesting reading.