People working from home during the coronavirus outbreak could face major problems with their internet connection due to a huge increase in web traffic. 

Internet experts have warned that employees working outside the office are likely to cause a huge surge in internet usage which could leave internet service providers (ISPs) struggling to keep up with demand. 

The traffic surge already appears to be causing problems. Earlier today, the remote working tool Microsoft Teams crashed as large numbers of people across Europe tried to log on. 

The Government has already said it will ask those aged over 70 to self-isolate and companies are starting to ask staff to do the same.

James Tilbury, managing director at the IT consultancy firm ILUX, warned: ‘Home workers may find that there is a degradation in performance as they become reliant on their home internet connection.’

READ MORE: How do I self-isolate during the coronavirus outbreak? 

Andrew Glover, chair of the Internet Services Providers' Association, a trade body for the internet industry, said there were “questions” about whether bandwidth demands could be met. 

He also called on businesses whose staff are working home to ensure their systems could cope with the increased traffic.  

"The possibility of the UK having to remotely work over the next few months has led to questions about the ability of ISPs to handle the additional workload of employees working from their homes,” he said. 

“ISPs are ready to handle any potential extra bandwidth and consistently assess the demands that are being put on their networks.

“Businesses and companies will need to ensure that their own systems support a potentially significant increase in remote connections to accommodate the potential increase in traffic from their employees."

People living in rural areas are at greatest risk of suffering slowdowns, warned internet expert Mark Pocock, who works at the comparison site BroadbandChoices.co.uk.

“There is every chance that the quality and speed of home broadband could be compromised as companies struggle to keep up with the universal demand of staff attempting to work or keep themselves entertained from home," he said. 

“The technology might not be able to withstand the strain of such a surge of people using their internet all at once.”

READ MORE: Six care home residents test positive for Covid-19

Internet service providers are already preparing for the increased demand. 

Howard Watson, chief technology officer at BT, insisted that his company – one of the most popular ISPs in Britain - could deal with the surge. 

Peak internet traffic tends to occur in the evening between 8pm and 9pm as people play online video games, download software and stream content on YouTube or Netflix.

Watson said daytime home-working is not likely to put as much of a strain on internet bandwidth as evening internet usage.  

“We have more than enough capacity in our UK broadband network to handle mass-scale home-working in response to COVID-19," he said. 

"Our network is built to accommodate evening peak network capacity.

“By comparison, data requirements for work-related applications like video calls and daytime email traffic represent a fraction of this. Even if the same heavy data traffic that we see each evening were to run throughout the daytime, there is still enough capacity for work-applications to run simultaneously." 

EE and BT Mobile customers will also be able to access the NHS free of charge without using up any of their mobile data allowance. 

Are you working from home during the coronavirus outbreak? Contact jasper.hamill@newsquest.co.uk to tell us about your experiences.